


Fate's a Bitch

by lilaKitsch



Series: Twilight Rewrite [1]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Canon-Typical Violence, Mild Blood, My First Fanfic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sarcasm, Self-Indulgent, Swearing, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, dumbasses being dumbasses, great one-liners please appreciate, major dumbassery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 67,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26471113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilaKitsch/pseuds/lilaKitsch
Summary: The Swan twins. Identical, yet so different. But nobody knew the truth, except the two of us.We started out with memories, not from this time, but from another. Twins in a past life, twins now.It wasn’t until after our mother married Phil, a minor league baseball player, that we remembered. A Novel from our previous life. Names, places, everything except for the two of us were eerily similar to what we could remember of a book series that we had read.It had changed drastically, with there being two of us now. One Isabella Marie, and one Katrina Elise. But we couldn’t tell, whether it would actually follow the series out or whether it was just a grand old coincidence.Eventually we pack ourselves up and move to Forks, just like the novel of our past lives. Everyone, though sad, wished us well on this new adventure we would be setting out for. A potential fairytale, or maybe a nightmare. We had no idea at that point.OR OG Bella is split into the Swan Twins and shenanigan's and cause ensue as they live out the life of OG Bella but have vague memories of having read the Twilight books in a past life.OR a joke made while reading Midnight Sun and the author ran with it and here you go
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Original Character(s), Edward Cullen/Original Female Character(s), The Cullen clan & Bella Swan, The Cullen clan & Original Female Character(s), They all become bffs - Relationship
Series: Twilight Rewrite [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949563
Comments: 13
Kudos: 75





	1. Preface of sorts

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the world and characters of Twilight.

The Swan twins. Identical, yet so different. But nobody knew the truth, except the two of us. 

We started out with memories, not from this time, but from another. Twins in a past life, twins now. My sister, Isabella, and I were able to communicate with one another with a simple glance. Our childhood was a whirlwind, we learned things at an expedited rate, as we had known them in our previous lives. Far outpacing our peers, we stuck together like glue. Though, I favoured sports and Bella favoured books. 

We enjoyed summers with our father in Forks, immensely. Our father doted on us quite a lot since he only had so much time to be with us each year, since our mother moved the two of us far away with her. We could tell that even in the harsh reality of my mother’s parting, our father still loved her and wished the best for her. So we enjoyed our little summers together with him, especially since Washington was so much cooler than Arizona in the summer.

We also had several friends, our best friends were Rachel, Rebecca, and Jacob Black, and Leah and Seth Clearwater, who spent time with us while our fathers all fished together. 

We spent time making up games and stories, and running around the trees on the bank of the lake. Sometimes we would swim a little in the shallows of the water. 

I was a more reckless child than the rest, jumping around the slippery rocks that lined the docks, climbing the trees around us, and trying to catch fish bare handed with spears I made from downed sticks. My sister normally sat in the shade with Rebecca and Rachel while the rest of us ran around crazily. Summers were fun. 

It was in our fourteenth year that our trips to Forks in the summer came to a screeching halt. I was scouted to join the U18 girls travel soccer team in Phoenix and wasn’t going to be able to spare the summer to go up to Forks anymore. My sister also didn’t like the idea of going alone. Our father however, took the news in a stride and made plans to come visit us for two weeks in the summer instead. He was happy for me. Time passed swiftly.

It wasn’t until after our mother married Phil, a minor league baseball player, that we remembered. A Novel from our previous life. Names, places, everything except for the two of us were eerily similar to what we could remember of a book series that we had read. It had been fairly popular, and we had consumed it as did most of the rest of the young adults. Though it had been forgotten to us in the Sands of time as we grew older, making it difficult for us to remember most of what happened.

Together, in multiple languages, we attempted to write out what we could remember of the event that transpired in the series. Also, it had changed drastically, with there being two of us now. One Isabella Marie, and one Katrina Elise. But we couldn’t tell, whether it would actually follow the series out or whether it was just a grand old coincidence. 

Then time passed. Our mother missed Phil greatly while he was travelling, though she insisted that she couldn’t just leave the two of us at home alone, no matter how adult we both acted. So Bella and I weighed out the pros and cons. The biggest thing holding us here other than our mother, was my team, which was easy enough to sway when we worked out a plan with our mother and my coach so that I could finish out the tournament season, though it meant there would be a bit of travelling involved for the next few months. 

So we decided to pack ourselves up and move to Forks, just like the novel of our past lives. Leaving behind my friends and teammates, my sister leaving behind her girlfriend. Everyone, though sad, wished us well on this new adventure we would be setting out for. A potential fairytale, or maybe a nightmare. We had no idea at that point. 


	2. First Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the world and characters of Twilight.

The flight from Phoenix Arizona to Seattle Washington was a measly four hours. We then had to take another, smaller, hour long connection from Seattle to Port Angeles. This is where our father picked us up in his cruiser. Police Chief Swan style. I was glad that we had started saving money up as soon as we realised what could potentially lay ahead for the two of us. Though our funds weren’t an extreme amount, we should be able to get at least a half decent used car to split. 

My foot had fallen asleep on the flight and I stumbled a bit on the tarmac. Bella caught my one arm and my dad steddied me with the other. 

“It’s good to see you Bells, Rina.” He said, grinning at the two of us. He took a once over the two of us and nodded his head as if expecting my wild appearance and my sister’s much more tame one. “You two haven’t changed much. How’s Renée?” 

“Mom’s fine. It’s good to see you too, Dad.” My sister said while smirking at me as I hobbled on my still sleeping foot. Pins and needles shooting through my calf. 

Together we still only had a few bags. We shared a lot of our clothes, and I, having spent most of my own time in sports wear instead of real jeans, meant packing wasn’t too difficult. We also only owned so much clothing that was actually viable for the Washington climate. The two of us and our mom had pooled some resources to at least supplement our wardrobe for the move. But it was scanty at best. This resulted in our very few bags, all easily fitting into the trunk of the cruiser. Our biggest bring was our electronics. Both of us came stashed with a cellphone and a laptop, a switch each, and I still had my DS in my arsenal, along with our other hobbies such as reading. 

“I found a good car for you, really cheap,” He announced to the two of us when we were finally settled in the car for the drive back to forks. 

"What kind of car?" I asked, not remembering what kind of car it was said that OG Bella had in the book. I had been fully prepared to get our own car. 

"Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy." 

"Where did you find it?" Bella asked him, looking at me with a side eye. Apparently she also hadn’t remembered this part. 

"Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast that we had spent some of our summers down exploring. Though I can’t quite recall many of the people or places I saw when I was there. It had been a few years. I looked at my sister and she also shook her head a little.

"Vaguely." I told him as I ran through some of the more important information I could recall off hand about the novel we were currently living in and our past summers here in Forks. This was one point that had slipped my mind still, though I don’t think it should have.

"He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted. I just nodded my head, still not sure if I knew exactly who he was talking about. Bella and I had spent the grand majority of our time with the kids of our fathers fishing friends, not the men themselves. "He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when there was no specific response from the two of us, "so he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap." 

"What year is it?" I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping we wouldn't think to ask. 

"Well, Billy's done a lot of work on the engine — it's only a few years old, really." 

"When did he buy it?" 

"He bought it in 1984, I think." 

"Did he buy it new?" Bella prompted again. 

"Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties — or late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly. 

"Dad, neither of us really know anything about cars. We wouldn't be able to fix it if anything went wrong, and we couldn't afford a mechanic..." I trailed off while looking over at Bella nodding along with my statement. 

"Really, Rina, Bella, the thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore." 

_ The thing _ , I thought to myself... it had possibilities — as a nickname, at the very least. I could hear my sister snickering in the seat beside me. 

"How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part that couldn't be compromised on. We didn’t have the funds to spare if it wasn’t reasonably priced.

"Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you two. As a homecoming gift." Charlie peeked sideways at us with a hopeful expression. 

Wow. Free. We really had forgotten about this little tidbit of the novel apparently. 

"You didn't need to do that, Dad. We were going to go halfsies on a car." 

"I don't mind. I want you two to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud. I just smiled at him vaguely, my sister beside me doing the same, wondering what it would look like. We couldn’t recall much of the descriptions in the book from our past life. And even the best descriptions that we could remember probably wouldn’t exactly live up to the real thing. So we were going to be seeing everything for the first time.

"That's really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." Bella said emphatically, we never looked at a free truck in the mouth — or engine, I guess. 

"Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by the thanks. 

We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet and rainy, and that was pretty much it for conversation. Bella and our father were neither very verbose, and I didn’t enjoy filling silences with awkward chattering. So we just stared out the windows in silence.

It was beautiful, of course, I could never deny that. Everything was green: the trees; their trunks covered with moss; their branches hanging with a canopy of it; the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down like a green halo through the leaves. It was almost too green when compared to Phoenix’s browns and tans - like stepping out into an alien planet. 

I managed to send our mother a few text messages as we were on the drive, though she didn’t respond to them. I figured that she was just busy and would get back to us soon. 

Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small, two-and-a-half bedroom house that he'd bought with our mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the only kind of days their marriage had — the early ones. There, parked on the street in front of the house, was our new — well, new to us — truck. It was a faded red color, with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. To my intense surprise, I loved it quite a bit. I didn't know if it would run, but I could see the two of us in it. Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged — the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car that it had destroyed. 

"Wow, Dad, I love it! Thanks!" Bella and I said in sync, grinning widely. Now our sure to be horrific day tomorrow would be just that much less dreadful. We wouldn't be faced with the choice of either walking two miles in the rain to school or accepting a ride in the Chief's cruiser on our first day here. It definitely helps the whole, starting mid junior year anxiety thing. 

"I'm glad you girls like it," Charlie said gruffly, embarrassed again by the actual enthusiasm that was evident in our voices. 

It took only one trip to get all our stuff upstairs. I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. My sister took the little half room beside mine, that used to be our toy room when we were small, and then storage until our father furnished it for our grand return. 

My room was familiar; it had belonged to the two of us since we were born. The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellowed lace curtains around the window — these were all a part of my childhood. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the cribs for beds and adding a desk as we grew. And now only one bed sat in the room. Though, the rocking chair from our baby days was still in the corner. 

There was only one small bathroom at the top of the stairs, which the three of us would have to share. Luckily I wasn’t terribly picky about things like that. Bella and I had different schedules generally and our father also wasn’t home much of the time, so it wasn’t worth it to dwell on there being only one bathroom.

One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left the two of us alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for our mother. It’s not like I hated moving here to Forks for a more or less permanent gig, I just missed my home, my friends, my teammates. I also wasn’t all too keen on being the new girl. I knew in the room beside mine, Bella was feeling the same way I did.

I sauntered over to look into her now room. There was her old bed that used to sit in our room, a small desk and chair similar to my own, and a quaint dark wood dresser to hold her basic dailys. She had a tiny square window with a new curtain hanging from it. Definitely not enough room to fit a person through, but big enough that it let some nice natural lighting in. The window in the room faced east, the forest in the back of the house was a nice view. The morning sunlight would be a nice addition to the room. It was painted a similar blue to our old room. It was cosy. 

I sashayed my way into the room and sat on Bella’s bed, watching her unpack her things.

“You gonna help? Or just sit there staring?” Bella asked me, sarcasm dripping in her tone and I grinned. 

“What? You actually want my help in organising your things?” I asked her, laying back on her bed after grabbing her stuffed bear and hugging it to my chest. 

“Oh fuck off,” She said, turning back to her task and ignoring me. 

“So, what do you think will happen tomorrow?” I asked her, thinking back to what I could remember from the book. Though, I couldn’t remember much of it. Unfortunately for us, since we were now living it. 

“Well, we’re going to be the new kids whether or not there are vampires living here,” Bella shrugged, not even looking at me as she said this. I chuckled a bit and nodded, though I knew she couldn’t see it. I rolled over onto my side and looked at her back, still hugging the bear to my chest.

I stared at her long dark auburn hair and pale skin that mirrored mine exactly. Maybe, if we looked like a girl from Phoenix should,  _ I should  _ at least be tan, maybe even blond — all the things that go with living in the valley of the sun and spending so much time in the sun itself as I had. I at least had the sporty thing; though, I can definitely say I don’t particularly look the part. 

Instead, Bella and I were both ivory-skinned, without even the excuse of blue eyes or red hair, despite the constant sunshine. I somehow failed to ever get a tan, no matter how much time I spent outside. I had always been slender, but soft somehow. Not someone you would suspect could play first string on a competitive sports team. That thought makes me miss my team and friends even more though, so I push it out of my head. At least my sisters looking soft was a bit more understandable, with her not having played sports since our childhood days.

“You think it’ll be bad?” I asked and she seemed to stifle a laugh. 

“Of course it will be. There’s only what, four hundred students, if that?” 

Forks High School had a frightening total of only three hundred and fifty-seven — now fifty-nine — students; there were more than seven hundred people in the junior class alone back home. All of the kids here had grown up together — their grandparents had been toddlers together. 

We would be the new girls from the big city, twins nonetheless, a curiosity.

“Doesn’t help that we’re twins either, AND from the fleeing chief of police’s wife to boot.” I muttered and Bella finally turned around, after having finished putting her clothing into the dresser. 

“Oh hush, we’ll be okay.”

I smiled at her confidence. “But you don’t like people, heck, I barely like people and I was considered the popular one in Phoenix.” 

“Oh shut up, we’re in small town washington now. Your facial piercings aren’t going to get you points here.” She stuck her tongue out in mocking, but I just quirked my eyebrow in her direction making sure to show off the piercing in it too. She just laughed at that. 

“Want to take bets on whether or not you’ll scare people tomorrow?” 

“Only the faint of heart!” I crowed, standing up and twisting, pointing at my sister in the process. 

“Oh, faint of heart is it?” 

“Oh shut up. At least they should be able to tell us apart after a day.” I frowned and crossed my arms. 

“Yeah, yeah. Fair enough,” Bella stood up and brushed off her clothes. “Did you finish unpacking or did you come here to bother me before you did?” She asked. 

“Oh, you mean I was supposed to do that?” I mused, laying back down on her bed and holding her bear again. 

“Of course you were! Am I supposed to be your mother?” 

“Oh of course not, though I am technically the younger twin,” I cackled a little at her glowering face. 

“Go unpack your goddamn bags Katrina,” she huffed at me, pointing towards the door of her room. 

“Oh shut up,” I stood up and marched out of her room and back into mine, her cackling laughter followed me the whole way to my room. 

When I finished putting my clothes in the old pine dresser, and hanging a few things in the tiny closet, I took my bag of bathroom necessities and went to the bathroom to clean myself up after the long day of travel. I looked at my face in the mirror as I brushed through my tangled, still slightly damp hair. Maybe it was the light, but already I looked sallower, unhealthy. My skin could be pretty — it was very clear, almost translucent-looking — but it all depended on colour. It seemed as if I had none of that here. Maybe I could ask Charlie for some good trail spots for hiking and running. The exercise might help my transition better from sunny Phoenix to rainy Forks.

I didn't sleep particularly well that night. I was restless from my day of sitting on my ass the whole time travelling. The constant  _ whooshing  _ of the rain and wind across the roof wouldn't fade into the background either. I pulled the faded old quilt over my head, and later added the pillow, too, but my mind just wouldn’t shut off. I couldn't fall asleep until well into the wee morning hours, when the rain finally settled into a quieter drizzle. Thick fog was all I could see out my window in the morning, and I could feel the claustrophobia and anxieties creeping up on me. 

Breakfast with Charlie was a mostly quiet event. I brought up my desire for a few good running trails, as Bella blanched at my question. I never understood how she could dislike running so much when we were identical twins. He told me that he would ask around and see what he could dig up for me. 

He wished us both good luck at school. Bella thanked him and I nodded in affirmation, knowing his hope was wasted. Good luck tended to avoid us like a plague. Also we were going to be the new girls in a three-hundred-fifty student school mid junior year. 

Charlie left first, off to the police station that was his wife and family. After he left, the two of us sat at the old square oak table each in one of the three mismatching chairs and I examined his small kitchen, with its dark paneled walls, bright yellow cabinets, and white linoleum floor. Nothing was changed. 

My mother had painted the cabinets eighteen years ago in an attempt to bring some sunshine into the house. Over the small fireplace in the adjoining handkerchief-sized family room was a row of pictures. First a wedding picture of Charlie and my mom in Las Vegas, then one of the four of us in the hospital after Bella and I were born, taken by a helpful nurse, followed by the procession of our school pictures up to last year's. Those were embarrassing to look at — I would have to see what I could do to get Charlie to put them somewhere else, at least while we were living here. 

It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over mom. It made me a little uncomfortable seeing it so glaringly obvious. 

I didn't want to be too early to school, but I was getting antsy and couldn't stay in the house anymore. Bella noticed this and after the dishes were placed in the sink, to be dealt with later, we donned our jackets — which had a bit of the feel of a biohazard suit — and headed out into the rain. 

It was just drizzling still, not enough to soak me through immediately as I reached for the house key that was always hidden under the eaves by the door, and locked up. The sloshing of my new waterproof boots was slightly unnerving. I began to miss the normal crunch of gravel as I walked. I couldn't pause and admire the truck again as I wanted; I was in a hurry to get out of the misty wet that swirled around my head and clung to my hair under my hood. I really am going to have to get used to this new climate.

Inside the truck, it was nice and dry. Either Billy or Charlie had obviously cleaned it up, but the tan upholstered seats still smelled faintly of tobacco, gasoline, and peppermint.The engine started quickly under Bella’s hands, to my relief, but loudly, roaring to life and then idling at top volume. Well, a truck this old was bound to have a flaw or two. The fact that it ran seemingly just fine was good. The antique radio worked, a plus that neither of us had expected. 

Finding the school wasn't difficult, though we had never been there before. The school was, like most other things, just off the highway. It was not obvious that it was a school; only the sign, which declared it to be the Forks High School, made Bella stop. It looked like a collection of matching houses, built with maroon-colored bricks. There were so many trees and shrubs I couldn't see its size at first. ‘Where was the feel of the institution?’ I wondered nostalgically. ‘Where were the chain-link fences, the metal detectors?’ 

Bella parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading front office. No one else was parked there, so I was sure it was off limits, but Bella decided that we would get directions inside instead of circling around in the rain like a pair of identical idiots. I stepped unwillingly out of the toasty truck cab and proceeded to walk in front of Bella down a little stone path lined with dark hedges. A small chime signalling our entrance.

Inside, it was brightly lit, and warmer than I'd hoped. The office was small; a little waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly. Plants grew everywhere in large multi-coloured plastic pots, as if there wasn't enough greenery outside. The room was cut in half by a long counter, cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a larger, red-haired woman wearing glasses. She was wearing a purple t-shirt, which immediately made me feel overdressed. 

The red-haired woman looked up. She eyed my visible eyebrow piercing with a little bit of disdain, but nothing too bad. "Can I help you two?" 

"I'm Katrina Swan and this is my twin sister Isabella," I informed her, and saw the immediate awareness light her eyes. The two of us were expected, a topic of gossip no doubt. The twin daughters of the Chief's flighty ex-wife, come home at last. I was not thrilled about the recognition, though it was not entirely unexpected, and Bella’s subtle blanch also told me she felt the same way. A town this small, it would have surprised me more if they hadn’t all gotten excited at the Swan twins arrival. 

"Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk until she found the ones she was looking for. "I have your schedules right here, and a map of the school." She brought several sheets to the counter to show both of us. 

She went through each of our classes for us, highlighting the best route to each on the maps, and gave us both a slip to have each teacher sign, which we were to bring back at the end of the day. She smiled at Bella, and then at me while eyeing the piercing again, and hoped, like Charlie, that we would like it here in Forks. I smiled back as convincingly as I could, trying to prepare myself mentally for the mayhem that would be the stares, the whispers, and worst of all the gossip. 

When we went back out to the truck in silence, other students were starting to arrive. Bella drove around the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad to see that most of the cars were older like ours, nothing flashy. At home we'd lived in one of the few lower-income neighborhoods that were included in the Paradise Valley District. It was a common thing to see a new Mercedes or Porsche in the student lot. The nicest car here was a shiny Volvo, and it stood out. Still, I was glad when Bella cut the engine as soon as we were in a spot, so that the thunderous volume wouldn't draw any more attention to us as we got out. 

“Well, this is different,” Bella finally muttered; though, I could tell that she wasn’t entirely upset at this development. 

“Tell me about it,” I responded as I looked at the map and our schedules. 

Our class schedules were basically identical, with the exception of our last two periods after lunch. Bella had gym right after lunch and I had Biology, and then we swapped. If I remembered correctly, OG Bella Swan from the novels of our past lives had biology directly after lunch. Was this a weird cosmic mix up? Or was I, Katrina, taking the place that was OG Bella’s? 

I guess that we would find out today which of these two things was correct.

Not that my sister looked too heartbroken about that possibility. She would have been more troubled being pursued than I would be, as I was unattached. She also greatly preferred women to men, meaning that if her soulmate ended up being a guy it would be a little bit of a hassle for her. Or more like an entire mess. 

I didn’t want to push the events of the novel onto myself if I could help it, but if the only other option was my sister, I would have gladly walked through many different levels of hell to help her out. Not that I could bargain with the cosmic gods who set this all up. The only thing I could ultimately do was wait and see. 

I looked at the map in the truck, trying to memorize it now; hopefully, we wouldn't have to walk around with it stuck in front of our nose’s all day. I stuffed everything in my bag, slung the strap over my shoulder, and sucked in a huge breath. I can do this, we can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me, just stare. Even the vampires that inhabited this small town wouldn’t bite me. I finally exhaled and stepped out of the truck, rounding to the front of it, Bella joining me shortly after.

We both kept our faces pulled back into our hoods as we walked to the sidewalk, crowded with teenagers. Our plain black and grey rain jackets didn't stand out, I noticed with relief. 

Once we got around the cafeteria, building three was easy to spot. A large black "3" was painted on a white square on the east corner. I could hear Bella’s breathing gradually creeping toward hyperventilation, which didn’t help calm my already thinning nerves, as we approached the door together. I tried holding my breath as we followed two unisex raincoats through the door. 

The classroom was small. The people in front of us stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them and Bella followed suit almost robotically. I grabbed Bellas forearm and gently squeezed after the two of us had hung our coats up. We were together, we could do this together. The two people who had entered in front of us were two girls, one a porcelain-colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least our skin tone wouldn't be a standout here in Forks like it had been back in Phoenix. 

We took the slips up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked at us when he saw our names — not an encouraging response — and of course. He also gawked at me, my eyebrow piercing seeming to have a spotlight placed on it. I was immensely grateful that I had my hair pulled down over my excessively pierced ears today. 

I felt my face flush tomato red in response to his staring. A peek from the corner of my eyes told me that Bella was in the same predicament as me. But at least he sent us both to a pair of empty desks at the back without introducing us to the class. It was harder for our new classmates to stare while we sat behind them in the back, but somehow, they managed. I kept my eyes down on my copy of the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. Bella and I'd already read everything. That was comforting... and boring. I was glad that I had thought to bring my folder of old essays, although I wondered only momentarily if that was considered cheating.

When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly boy with dark black hair leaned across the aisle to talk to Bella. 

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?" He asked my sister quizzically, he looked like the overly helpful type that we had wanted to avoid, “And you’re Katrina?” He took only a moment to look at me, noticing my prominent piercing as everyone else had, before moving his eyes back to my identical twin sister.

I was used to it. I had a fair few piercings, and though I had to take most of them out during soccer I quite enjoyed the way I looked with them, and they helped people to be able to tell us apart. Bella had been super annoyed at my teammates coming up to her in the halls to try and chat so I had started to get more piercings at the beginning of high school.

"Bella," She corrected smoothly, giving me a side glance. Most of my friends and teammates from Phoenix called me Kat, but my mother and father called me Rina. She probably wasn’t sure how I wanted to be called here, so she left the response of my name to me. 

I smiled a little at the guy who was still looking at Bella in rapture and giving me quizzical side glances in between. 

“Kat,” I said calmly. Everyone within a three-seat radius turned to look towards us. 

"Where's your next class?" he asked Bella enthusiastically, after only giving a slight nod in my direction as if to acknowledge my correction. 

“Um…” I watched as Bella had to check in her bag.

"Government, with Jefferson, in building six." I responded a little harshly on her behalf without having to look at our class list, the boy startled a little at my slightly rude response but nodded his head. 

There was nowhere to look without meeting curious stares. 

"I'm headed toward building four, I could show you two the way..." He said while looking only at Bella, definitely over-helpful, and a little bit small-town judgemental. I stifled a sigh. "I'm Eric," he added. 

Bella smiled tentatively, not sure what to do, looking my way before glancing back at Eric then to the table in response. "Thanks." 

She was considered the nicer twin, of course, we both knew that she was just more into keeping the social peace than I was. She had no problem cussing you out if you were doing something stupid and mothering you until you just wanted the world to make it end.

We got our jackets and headed out into the rain, which had picked up. I could have sworn several people behind us were walking close enough to eavesdrop. I hoped that I wasn't already getting paranoid. But I probably wasn’t wrong either.

"So, this is a lot different than Phoenix , huh?" he asked. 

"Very." Bella responded while looking at me again, as if pleading for me to step into the conversation. But this boy didn’t want to converse with me, even if we did have the same exact face. 

"It doesn't rain much there, does it?" 

"Three or four times a year." She forced a small chuckle, I could instantly tell that she also vaguely missed the dry and warm air. She didn’t handle the weather as well as I did, and I wasn’t handling the dramatic change all that well right now to begin with. 

"Wow, what must that be like?" he wondered. 

"Sunny," she told him. 

"You don't look very tan." 

"Our mother is part albino." I finally cut into the conversation sarcastically, not wanting to watch this weird gossip/attempting to flirt trainwreck anymore. Also we don’t have to explain melanin concentrations in skin. Bella shot me a warning glance as Eric studied my face apprehensively, and I sighed. Trying my best to not roll my eyes at him. Bella looked ready to elbow me if I even tried to.

We walked back around the cafeteria, to the south buildings by the gym. Eric walked us right to the door, though it was clearly marked. 

"Well, good luck," he said, facing Bella directly as I touched the handle. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together." He sounded hopeful. 

I shook my head at his terrible attempt at flirting and went inside without waiting to hear if my sister replied. I felt her follow right after me though. 

“Do you think if I wore an ‘I’m into pussy’ shirt that wouldn’t happen again?” She asked me vaguely as we took off our jackets again. I couldn’t help but laugh, wondering how scandalised this small town would be if my sister was outspoken about her sexuality. Probably far more scandalous than my piercings. 

“That would probably handle most of the cowardly ones,” I told her as we made our way to the front of the class, to get our slips signed. “But who knows what these small town kids know about alternative sexual preferences.” 

The rest of the morning passed in about the same fashion. Our Trigonometry teacher, Mr. Varner, who I would have hated anyway just because of the subject he taught - though Bella was quite fond of math - was the only one who made us stand in front of the class and introduce ourselves to the rest. Like a spectacle on display. 

After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me or Bella questions about how we were liking Forks. Bella tried to be diplomatic, and I tended to be a lot less patient than my sister, but mostly I just lied a lot or told little half truths. At least neither of us ever needed the school map. 

One girl, Jessica, sat next to me in Trig and Bella in Spanish, though god knows why someone like us who is already fluent in the language has to sit in the class, and she walked with us to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than our five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. I just smiled and nodded as she walked between us while she prattled about teachers and classes. I didn't try to keep up, since most of the names were still unfamiliar to me anyways.

We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to us. I forgot most of their names as soon as she said them, I had always struggled to put names to faces. I could recognise a face I had only seen a few times, but a name was a different story entirely. I hope Bella is having better luck than me. Jess’s friends seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to the two of us. The boy from English, Eric if I remembered correctly, waved at Bella from across the room. Though I was the one who grinned widely and wiggled my fingers back. His face flushed immediately, and he turned his eyes away from me quickly.

It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them. 

They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of each of them. They weren't gawking at Bella and me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught, and held, my attention. 

They didn't look anything alike. Of the three boys, one was big — muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. Another was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and honey blond. The last was lanky, less bulky, with untidy, bronze-colored hair. He was more boyish than the others, who looked like they could be in college, or even teachers here rather than students. 

The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the  _ Sports Illustrated  _ swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixie like, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction. 

And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town, at least that I had seen. Paler than my sister and me, the ‘albinos’. They all had very dark eyes despite the range in hair tones. They also had dark shadows under those eyes — purplish, bruise like shadows. As if they were all suffering from a sleepless night, or almost done recovering from a broken nose. Though their noses, all their features, were straight, perfect, angular . 

But all this is not why I couldn't look away. 

I stared, because their faces, so different yet so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly, beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful — maybe the perfect blond girl, or the bronze-haired boy.

They were all looking away — away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray — unopened soda, unbitten apple, untouched pizza — and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's step, until she dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought possible. My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchanging. 

My mind connected the dots and I reached across the table to give Bella a few almost excited fangirl slaps. I really had a hard time holding back my almost excitement and slight horror that we were actually living in a town with vampires. I gave her a pointed look before glancing back to the now four, beautiful, inhuman creatures. I could feel Bella’s glare at the side of my face, not appreciating being slapped in front of our new acquaintances. 

"Who are  _ they  _ ?" I asked Jessica, ignoring my twins accusing glance, interrupting her train of conversation. Bella’s head finally whipped around at my tone as she took in the beautys across the cafeteria for the first time as well, her eyes widening as she looked.

As Jess looked up to see who I meant — though already knowing, probably, from my tone — suddenly he looked at her, the thinner one, the boyish one, the youngest, perhaps. He looked at my neighbor for just a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered to mine. 

He looked away quickly, more quickly than I could, though in a flush of embarrassment I dropped my eyes at once. In that brief flash of a glance, his face held nothing of interest — it was as if she had called his name, and he'd looked up in involuntary response, already having decided not to answer. 

Jessica giggled in embarrassment, looking at the table like I did. Bella didn’t stop though, studying them like she would have if they were a specimen in a jar. I had to thwack her hand a few times for her to look back at me. ‘Stop it,’ I mouth to her inaudibly, finally she followed suit as well, probably not wanting to be beat again if she doesn’t comply. Gosh, it’s like she thinks I’m violent or something, oh wait.

"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She said this under her breath. 

I felt a twinge of knowledge in my gut as I glanced sideways at the beautiful boy, who was looking at his tray now, picking a bagel to pieces with long, pale fingers. His mouth was moving very quickly, his perfect lips barely opening. The other three still looked away, and yet I felt he was speaking quietly to them. 

Strange, unpopular names, I thought. A sense of deja vu running through my body as if it was trying to make a home there. I wracked my brain, trying to remember the novel from my past life. My lack of remembering made me cringe internally. I really wish I had gotten more into the novel, it would help me more if I could remember it better other than a fine brushing of a few major plot points. I’d have to look at our notebooks when we got home. 

"They are... very nice-looking." Bella struggled with the conspicuous understatement. I vaguely remember their description in the story at least. The most inhumanly beautiful beings. The book's description paled in comparison to them in real life though. They were simply stunning, all of them. 

"Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all  _ together  _ though — Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice , I mean. And they  _ live  _ together." I nodded along, vaguely remembering that detail from the novel. Though her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. But, if I was being honest, I had to admit that even in Phoenix , it would cause gossip. Of course, I saw Bella subtly flinch at the condemnation. She could probably hear what people would say about her when they learned of her long distance girlfriend still back in Phoenix. 

"Which ones are the Cullens ?" I asked. "They don't look related..." 

"Oh, they're not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his late twenties or early thirties. They're all adopted. The Hales  _ are  _ brother and sister, twins — the blondes — and they're foster children." 

"They look a little old for foster children." I comment, taking a quick peek back at the four still sitting at the table.

"They are now, Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that." 

"That's really kind of nice — for them to take care of all those kids like that, when they're so young and everything." Bella says, compassion colouring her tone. As if trying to mellow out the subtle hostility in Jessica’s. 

"I guess so," Jessica admitted reluctantly, and I got the impression that she didn't like the doctor and his wife for some reason. With the glances she was throwing at their adopted children, I would presume the reason was jealousy. "I think that Mrs. Cullen can't have any kids, though," she added, as if that lessened their kindness in any capacity. Of course, Bella gave me a knowing side eye look at that statement, and I simply jerked the side of my lips up in response. Of course, we knew why they were all together, and of course Mrs. Cullen couldn’t have children. It was knowledge that Jessica would never have though. 

Throughout all this conversation, my eyes flickered again and again to the table where the strange family sat. They continued to look at the walls and not eat. 

"Have they always lived in Forks?" I asked. Surely Bella or I would have noticed them on one of our summers here. We were here consistently up until the summer before high school.

"No," she said in a voice that implied it should be obvious, even to a new arrival like me. "They just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska ." 

As I examined them again, the youngest one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity in his expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me that his glance held some kind of unmet expectations. 

Oh god, we were starting with curiosity. The mind he could not read. I briefly wonder if both Bella and my own mind were locked away from him or if there was a difference between the two of us there. 

"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I asked again, this time trying to really force myself to remember their names. I peeked at him from the corner of my eye, and he was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students had today — he had a slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again. 

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he'd turned her down. 

I bit my lip to hide my smile. Then I glanced at him again. His face was turned away, but I thought his cheek appeared lifted, as if he were smiling, too. 

After a few more minutes, the four of them left the table together. They all were noticeably graceful — even the big, brawny one. It was unsettling to watch. The one named Edward didn't look at me again as he passed. 

Bella gave me a look, her eyebrows raised in question. Not that I had any answers to give, I was just as in the dark as she was at this point. She lifted her hand and covered her mouth, a smile starting to form. I can tell from the way her cheeks move, though her mouth is now covered to hide her reaction from the others. 

I slapped her other arm a little, rolling my eyes. We are not doing this here at the fucking lunch table. It would be a disaster if anyone noticed our silent conversation. I was not, and I repeat, not, going to be getting into any sort of specific altercation with my sister in the presence of others. No way. That was like asking to be looked at like we were a six headed hydra. We were already a freak show, don’t need to add more to it. 

Bella and I sat at the table with Jessica and her friends longer than we would have if we’d been sitting alone. I was anxious not to be late for class on my first day. One of my new acquaintances, who considerately reminded me that her name was Angela, had Biology II with me the next hour. Bella got lucky with another one of Jessica’s friends, I think her name was Lauren, who had gym this hour with her. So Bella and I parted ways after lunch, promising to meet each other at the truck after school. Angela and I walked to class together in silence. It seems as if she was shy, and I wasn’t going to fill a silence with mindless chatter. 

When we entered the classroom, Angela went to sit at a black-topped lab table exactly like the ones I was used to back in Phoenix. She already had a neighbor. In fact, all the tables were filled but one. Next to the center aisle, I recognized Edward Cullen by his unusual hair, sitting next to that single open seat. 

I had had a small piece of me hoping that this would be different, but I knew, somewhere deep down that it wouldn’t be. Not this at least. 

I breathed in a deep breath, trying to prepare myself. This would be the moment we would know whether I had taken OG Bella’s place or not. 

As I walked down the aisle to introduce myself to the teacher and get my slip signed, I was watching Edward surreptitiously, my gaze not being able to stay away from him for long. Curiosity got the better of me. Just as I passed, he suddenly went rigid in his seat. He stared at me again, meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face — it was hostile, furious. I looked away quickly, shocked, going red automatically again. I stumbled over a book in the walkway and had to catch myself on the edge of a table, I wasn’t usually this uncoordinated. The girl sitting there giggled. 

I'd noticed that his eyes were black — coal black. And the vicious look on his face told me all I needed to know. Now Edward just needed the chance to meet my sister, for us to be able to be sure.

Mr. Banner signed my slip and handed me a book with no nonsense about introductions. I could tell we were going to get along. Of course, he had no choice but to send me to the one open seat in the middle of the room. I kept my eyes down as I went to sit by  _ him _ , Not really sure how to feel about the antagonistic stare he'd given me. 

I didn't look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw his posture change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face. I felt myself go ridgid in my seat and it took me a few moments to relax a little. He shouldn’t kill me here, not if we were to follow the story. Of course, maybe we wouldn’t follow it and I would die within this hour, I couldn’t be so sure. I let my hair fall over my right shoulder, making a dark curtain between us, and tried to pay attention to the teacher. 

Unfortunately the lecture was on cellular anatomy, something I'd already studied too much of, both in this life and the last. I took notes carefully anyway, always looking down. 

I couldn't stop myself from peeking occasionally through the screen of my hair, curiosity and fascination getting away from me. During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the edge of his chair, sitting as far away from me as possible. I could see his hand on his left leg was clenched into a fist, tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too, he never relaxed. He had the long sleeves of his white shirt pushed up to his elbows, and his forearm was surprisingly hard and muscular beneath his light skin. He wasn't nearly as slight as he'd looked next to his burlier brothers. 

The class seemed to drag on longer than the others. Was it because the day was finally coming to a close, or because I was waiting for his tight fist to loosen? It never did; he continued to sit so still it looked like he wasn't breathing. Not that he needed to. I felt a slight sense of gratefulness to him not breathing. I didn’t really want to die today.

I peeked up at him one more time before the hour was up, and regretted it instantly. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes sharp as a knife and full of revulsion. I flinched away from him automatically, shrinking against my chair. 

At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump startled by the noise, and Edward Cullen was out of his seat. Fluidly he rose — he was also much taller than I'd thought — his back to me, and he was out the door before anyone else was out of their seat. 

I sat frozen in my seat for a moment, staring blankly after him. I knew this would happen, but it was still startling to be inside the scene instead of only being witness to it in a book. I began gathering up my things slowly, trying to calm my racing heart. I still had one more class, I couldn’t let my guard down now.

"Aren't you Isabella Swan?" a male voice asked. 

I looked up to see a cute, baby-faced boy, his pale blond hair carefully gelled into orderly spikes, smiling at me in a friendly way. Of course, he couldn’t tell the twins apart yet. Though it would be easy for him soon enough. He also only gave a brief glance at my facial piercing before looking me directly in the eye again. 

"Katrina actually, I prefer Kat though," I corrected him, with a smile. 

"I'm Mike." 

"Hi, Mike." 

"Do you need any help finding your next class?" 

"I'm headed to the gym, actually. I think I can find it." 

"That's my next class, too." He seemed thrilled, though it wasn't that big of a coincidence in a school this small. It was also obvious to me that he didn’t have an adverse reaction to my piercing preferences as some of the other more meek types did. 

We walked to class together; he was a chatterer — he supplied most of the conversation, which made it easy for me. He'd lived in California until he was ten, so he knew how I felt about the sun. It turned out he was also in my English class. He was one of the nicest people I'd met today. At least to me personally.

But as we were entering the gym, he asked, "So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what? I've never seen him act like that." 

I cringed again, automatically at the question, not sure how to answer it. I decided to play dumb. 

"Was that the boy I sat next to in Biology?" I asked, seemingly disinterested. 

"Yes," he said. "He looked like he was in pain or something." 

"I don't know," I responded. "I never spoke to him." 

"He's a weird guy." Mike lingered by me instead of heading to the dressing room. "If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you." 

I smiled at him before walking through the girls' locker room door, to find myself someplace to put my school bag at least.

The Gym teacher, Coach Clapp, found me a uniform but didn't make me dress down for today's class. At home, only a year of P.E. was required. Here, P.E. was mandatory all four years. And even though I played sports, I really hated gym class. This wasn’t going to be a fun last period of the day. 

It ended up that today I sat to the side and watched four volleyball games running simultaneously throughout the period. 

The final bell rang at last. I walked slowly to the truck, to wait on Bella. She was quick, waving at the same girl that had taken her to the gym after lunch. I smiled, glad that Bella seemed to have made a friend already. Once she walked up to the truck she leaned on it and looked at me, her brows raised in question. 

That was all the introduction I needed, I grabbed her arm, patting it wildly, my eyes wide. She groaned a little trying to grab my hands and still the almost excited energy. Once she’d trapped one of my hands in each of hers she turned me to face her. 

“So?” She finally asked quizzically and I just bounced on the spot, my hands still gripped firmly in Bella’s grasp.

“It was the same,” I whispered excitedly and Bella looked at me as if I really had grown a few hydra heads. Whatever, I won’t be fazed. 

“So he reacted violently to your smell?” 

“Yes, yes, he was on edge and almost vampire zoomed the fuck out of the room at the end of class.” Bella barely held the cackling until I finished my sentence.

“Vampire zoomed,” she chortled, finally releasing my hands to cover her mouth. I gripped her shoulders, forcing her to look at me. 

“I’m not sure it will be just me.”

“We’re twins after all.”

“What happens if it’s both of us?”

“Who the fuck knows? This wasn’t a harem story though, no matter how much the triangle was played up.” 

“Fucking, please don’t give me a harem. I barely want the one!” I muttered, my head falling slightly. 

“Ah,” Bella reached up and patted my head a little, like I was her child to comfort or something. “So….” She paused, looking at me, “you want me to test it by going into the office first. Seeing if I stir up the same reaction.” 

“Yes!” I looked up, a little hopeful, a little afraid. “Just text me if he doesn’t even flinch when the wind blows through and I’ll come and wait with you. Please.”

“Fine, fine, but you’re on dish duty tonight.” She chuckled as she sauntered off towards the office. I waited with baited breath, trying to not have a heart attack. 

After only a few moments, and one or two people entering and exiting the office, I felt the vibration of my phone in my pocket. I pulled it out to read the simple text -  _ nothing _ \- before I sighed again. 

Excellent. Out of the frying pan and into the fucking fire I guess. I marched my way over to the office myself. 

When I walked into the warm office, I almost turned around and walked back out. Obviously I’m more of a coward than I thought. Though I knew that this would happen, I knew that he would be there, Edward Cullen stood at the desk in front of me. He didn't appear to notice my entrance. Just the meer knowledge that Edward seemed to be thirsting for my blood and mine alone made me cringe a little. At least this saves Bella some heartache. Or headache. 

I moved to stand next to Bella, pressed against the back wall, waiting for the receptionist to be free. Bella took a look at me and stuck her tongue out subtly. I bared my teeth at her slightly, in what others might think was a smile, but Bella could tell it was a look of stress. 

He was arguing with the receptionist in a low, attractive voice. I quickly picked up the gist of the argument. He was trying to trade from sixth-hour Biology to another time — any other time. 

The door opened again, and the cold wind suddenly gusted through the room, rustling the papers on the desk, swirling my hair around my face. The girl who came in merely stepped to the desk, placed a note in the wire basket, and walked out again. But Edward Cullen's back stiffened, and he turned slowly to glare at me — his face was absurdly handsome — with piercing, hate-filled eyes. For an instant, I felt a thrill of genuine fear, raising the hair on my arms and the back of my neck. I gripped my sister's arm, as if she could protect me from him. The look only lasted a second, but it chilled me more than the freezing wind. He turned back to the receptionist. 

"Never mind, then," he said hastily in a voice like velvet. "I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help." And he turned on his heel without another look at me, and disappeared out the door. 

Bella gripped my elbow firmly and moved us towards the receptionists desk. She pulled the paper that was clutched in my hand and put it together with hers, handing it to her. I could still feel the lack of colour in my face, white for once instead of red. 

"How did your first day go, dear?" the receptionist asked us maternally. 

"Fine," I lied , my voice weak. She didn't look convinced. 

“It was good, we’re just a little tired” Bella supplied, glancing at me as if she was ready to punch me for being a bad actor.

I tried my best for a smile and the receptionist nodded, letting us go back out to our truck.

Bella smacked me on the back of my head, a light chuff. “It’s not like we didn’t expect this.” She muttered at me as we kept moving. 

I took a few deep breaths, nodding even though she had moved ahead of me and wouldn’t see it. We had expected this, I needed to man up a bit. 

When we got to the truck, it was almost the last car in the lot. It seemed like a haven, already the closest thing to home. Bella revved the engine and turned up the heater before moving back to the road. I was glad that she was driving right now, I didn’t know if I could act normally quite yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First official chapter! I'm working hard to get 2 or so chapters up per month so that I can work through the story at a fair pace. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! Don't forget to comment I can't wait to hear your thoughts!


	3. Open Book

The next day was better... and worse. 

It was better because it wasn't raining yet, though the clouds were dense and opaque. It was easier because I knew what to expect of my day. Mike came to sit by Bella and me in English, and walked us to our next class, with Eric glaring at him all the while, Bella didn’t like the prospective reason why either. People didn't look at the two of us quite as much as they had yesterday. We sat with a big group at lunch that included Mike, Eric, Jessica, and several other people whose names and faces I now mostly remembered. I began to feel like maybe Bella and I were treading water, instead of drowning in it. 

It was worse because I was tired, I still couldn't sleep well with the wind echoing around the house, I was definitely not used to the white noise of the rain and the wind yet. It was worse because Mr. Varner called on me in Trig, multiple times, when my hand wasn't raised and I had to answer, lucky to scrape through correct answers. It was miserable because I was starting to miss the grind of training and Charlie hadn’t found any good leads on running trails yet. And it was worse because Edward Cullen wasn't in school at all. 

All morning I was dreading lunch, fearing that I really was living the life of OG Bella, and fearing what that would mean for my sister’s and my own future.

When I walked into the cafeteria with Jessica and Bella — trying to keep my eyes from sweeping the place for him, and failing entirely — I saw that his four siblings of sorts were sitting together at the same table, and he was not with them. My heart simultaneously rose and sank at this information.

Mike intercepted us and steered us to his table. Jessica seemed elated by the attention, and her friends quickly joined us. But as I tried to listen to their easy chatter, I was terribly uncomfortable, my brain working a mile a minute. Bella could tell I was distracted and tried to run interference for me, for that, I was grateful. 

I walked to Biology with more confidence when, by the end of lunch, he still hadn't shown his face. Thinking that I could leave these problems to a later me, make myself deal with them in the future. I didn’t have to cause myself anxiety over this whole thing now. Mike, who was taking on the qualities of a golden retriever, both protector and friend, walked faithfully by my side to class, chattering easily with me even though I was distracted. I went to my seat. Mike followed, talking about an upcoming trip to the beach. He lingered by my desk until the bell rang. Then he smiled at me wistfully and went to sit by a girl with fluffy brown hair and braces.

It looked like I was going to have to do something about Mike, and it wouldn't be easy. In a town like this, where everyone lived on top of everyone else, diplomacy was essential. I had never been enormously tactful with my words; I had no practice dealing with overly friendly boys. Most of the guys I dealt with were jock types, guys I didn’t feel I had to use subtleties with, and also ones who weren’t generally attracted to me in that sense. Holly, Amanda, Tess, Noah, and I all ran with the boys at our school, we were considered one of them, not generally someone to be flirted with. 

I was relieved that I had the desk to myself, what with Edward absent. I told myself that repeatedly, almost convincing myself. But I couldn't get rid of the nagging suspicion that I was basically fucked for the rest of my existence.

When the school day was finally done, I changed quickly back into my jeans and navy blue sweater. I hurried from the girls' locker room, pleased to find that I had successfully evaded having to be civil to anyone for the moment. I walked swiftly out to the parking lot. It was crowded now with fleeing students. I got in my truck and dug through my bag to make sure I had what I needed. I heard the passenger side door open, indicating that Bella had hopped into the cab as well. 

Last night we'd discovered that Charlie couldn't cook much besides fried eggs and bacon. So I requested that Bella and I be assigned kitchen duty in rotation while we lived with him. He was willing enough to hand over the keys to the banquet hall. I also found out that he had little to no food in the house. So I had the shopping list and the cash from the jar in the cupboard labeled FOOD MONEY, and we were on our way to the Thriftway . 

I gunned the deafening engine to life, ignoring the heads that turned in my direction, and backed carefully into a place in the line of cars that were waiting to exit the parking lot. As we waited, trying to pretend that the ear-splitting rumble was coming from someone else's car, I saw the two Cullens and the Hale twins getting into their car. It was the shiny new Volvo. Of course. I hadn't noticed their clothes before — I'd been too mesmerized by their faces. Now that I looked, it was obvious that they were all dressed exceptionally well; simply, but in clothes that subtly hinted at designer origins. With their remarkable good looks, the style with which they carried themselves, they could have worn dishrags and pulled it off. 

I could feel Bella wanting to say something from beside me, though she held her tongue, worried that the Cullens and Hales might hear her as we passed them.

They looked at our noisy truck as we did pass them, just like everyone else. I kept my eyes straight forward and was relieved when I finally was free of the school grounds. 

The Thriftway was not far from the school, just a few streets south, off the highway. It was nice to be inside the supermarket; it felt normal. Bella and I did most of the shopping back in Phoenix too and we both fell into the pattern of the familiar task easily. 

When we got home, I unloaded all of the groceries, stuffing them in wherever I could find an open space, while Bella ran off to go skype Tess, her girlfriend. I hoped Charlie wouldn't mind the slightly disorganized mess I made. I wrapped potatoes in foil and stuck them in the oven to bake, covered some steak in marinade and balanced it on top of a carton of eggs in the fridge. 

When I was finished with that, I took my book bag upstairs. Before starting my homework, I changed into a pair of dry sweats, pulled my damp hair up into a pony-tail, and peeked into Bella’s room to greet Tess. 

“Mom sent us emails, though I don’t know why she won’t just text us back.” Bella shrugged, knowing that I would answer her for the both of us and I rolled my eyes. I got back into my room and using my phone I checked my email for the first time since I moved. I threw myself onto my bed. I had three messages. 

"Bella & Rina," my mom wrote... 

**_Write to me as soon as you two get in. Tell me how your flight was. Is it raining? I miss you both already. I'm almost finished packing for Florida , but I can't find my pink blouse. Do either of you know where I put it?_ **

**_Phil says hi._ **

**_Mom._ **

I sighed and went to the next. It was sent only eight hours after the first. 

"Bella & Rina," she wrote... 

**_Why haven't you emailed me yet? What are you waiting for?_ **

**_Mom._ **

The last was from this morning. 

**_Isabella and Katrina,_ **

**_If I haven't heard from one of you by 5:30 p.m. today I'm calling Charlie._ **

I checked the clock. We still had an hour, but my mom was well known for jumping the gun. I sighed, why couldn’t Bella have taken care of this when she saw them.

**_Mom,_ **

**_Calm down. I'm writing right now. Don't do anything rash._ **

**_Kat._ **

I sent that, and began again. 

**_Mom,_ **

**_Why didn’t you just text us? We’ve been messaging you since we landed in Port Angeles. Did you lose your phone again?_ **

**_Everything is great. Of course it's raining. School isn't bad, just a little repetitive. We met some nice kids who sit by us at lunch._ **

**_Your blouse is at the dry cleaners - you were supposed to pick it up Friday._ **

**_Charlie bought us a truck, can you believe it? I love it. It's old, but really sturdy, which is good, you know?._ **

**_I miss you, too. Bella does as well. One of us will write again soon, but I'm not going to check my email every five minutes. Text us when you find your phone please, it’s easier that way to keep in touch._ **

**_Relax, breathe. I love you._ **

**_Kat._ **

I had decided to skim through  _ Wuthering Heights  _ — the novel we were currently studying in English — again for a quick brush up to help with the essay, and that's what I was doing when Charlie came home. I'd lost track of the time, and I hurried downstairs to take the potatoes out and put the steak in to broil. 

"Bella? Rina?" my father called out when he heard me on the stairs. 

"Hey, Dad, welcome home." I called out to him as I rounded into the kitchen. 

"Thanks." He hung up his gun belt and stepped out of his boots as I bustled about the kitchen. As far as I was aware, he'd never shot the gun on the job. But he kept it ready. When we came here as children, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door. I guess he considered us old enough now not to shoot ourselves by accident, and not depressed enough to shoot on purpose. 

"What's for dinner?" he asked warily. My mother was an imaginative cook, and her experiments weren't always edible. I was surprised, and sad, that he seemed to remember that far back. 

"Steak and potatoes," I answered easily, and he looked relieved. 

“Where’s Bells?” He asked, looking around to see if she was in the living room. I smiled. 

“Talking to Tess.”

“Ah,” He responded, he had no hard feelings about Bella’s sexual orientation, but he also was an awkward man, and he wasn’t sure how to talk about it. I just smiled to myself at this fact. 

He seemed to feel awkward standing in the kitchen doing nothing so he wandered off into the living room to watch TV while I worked. We were both more comfortable that way. I made a salad while the steaks cooked, and set the table. 

I called him and Bella in when dinner was ready, and he sniffed appreciatively as he walked into the room. 

"Smells good, Rina." 

"Thanks." 

“Mmmm Steak,” Bella said as she wandered down the stairs. Her eyes were a little moist looking. I frowned, though I knew that it was hard on her to be so far away. I just squeezed her hand as she passed me. 

We ate in silence for a few minutes. It wasn't uncomfortable. None of us was bothered by the quiet atmosphere. In some ways, we were well suited for living together. 

"So, how did you like school? Have you made any friends?" he asked us as he was taking seconds. 

"Well, we have a few classes with a girl named Jessica. We sat with her friends at lunch.” 

“Yeah, and Lauren has been hanging out with me a lot too, especially since we have all afternoon together.” Bella chimed in.

“And there's this boy, Mike, who's very friendly. Everybody seems pretty nice." With one glaringly outstanding exception on my part. 

"That must be Mike Newton. Nice kid — nice family. His dad owns the sporting goods store just outside of town. He makes a good living off all the backpackers who come through here." As he said that I had a brief thought to hit up the Newtons store, maybe I could find myself a good running jacket. 

There was a lull in conversation, but I had a nagging feeling about needing to ask my dad about Edward.

"Do you know the Cullen family?" I asked hesitantly. Bella rolled her eyes at me due to my line of questioning. 

"Dr. Cullen's family? Sure. Dr. Cullen's a great man." 

"They... the kids... are a little different. They don't seem to fit in very well at school." Charlie surprised me by looking angry at my statement. 

"People in this town," he muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, making ten times the salary he gets here," he continued, getting louder. "We're lucky to have him — lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature — I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should — camping trips every other weekend... Just because they're newcomers, people have to talk." 

It was the longest speech I'd ever heard Charlie make, even when we were small. He must feel strongly about whatever gossip the townspeople were saying. Though it wasn’t too hard to guess what most of it was. 

I backpedaled quickly, not wanting an argument. "They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they kept to themselves. They're all very attractive," I added, trying to be more complimentary. 

"You should see the doctor," Charlie said, laughing. "It's a good thing he's happily married. A lot of the nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around." 

We lapsed back into silence for a few minutes as we finished eating. He cleared the table while Bella started on the dishes. Before he could wander off again I called him back.

“Hey, Dad?” 

“Yeah Rina?”

“I was just wondering if you had found out about any decent running trails around here yet?” I asked, hoping that I can start running in the mornings. I really needed to work off some of this antsy stress I kept feeling. 

“Oh yeah! Jim said…” He prattled off a few of the areas of a few trails he deemed as ‘safe, and not too tricky’. I thanked him and he went back to the TV, and I left Bella to finish with the clean up. I went upstairs to work on my math homework. I could feel a tradition in the making. 

That night it was finally quiet. I fell asleep quickly, exhausted. Waking up early to run a little trail close to home, though I was ill equipped for the weather of Washington. I really might need to pop by the Newtons store. 

The rest of the week was uneventful. I got used to the routine of my classes. By Friday I was able to recognize, if not name, almost all the students at school. A feat if I ever knew one. 

Edward Cullen didn't come back to school. 

Every day, I watched anxiously until the rest of the Cullens entered the cafeteria without him. Then I could relax and join in the lunchtime conversation. Mostly it centered around a trip to the La Push Ocean Park in a few weeks that Mike was putting together. Bella and I were invited, and we had both agreed to go, more out of politeness than desire. 

By Friday I was perfectly comfortable entering my Biology class, no longer worried that Edward would be there. I tried not to think about him, or anything to do with him but I couldn't totally suppress the anxiety that crawled its way up my spine every time I thought about the future. 

My first weekend in Forks passed without incident. Charlie, unused to spending time in the usually empty house, worked most of the weekend. Bella and I cleaned the house, I got ahead on my homework, and we took turns writing our mom more bogusly cheerful emails while she was cellphone-less. I did drive to the library Saturday, but it was so poorly stocked that I didn't bother to get a card. We would have to make a date to visit Olympia or Seattle soon and find a good bookstore. I wondered idly what kind of gas mileage the truck got... and shuddered at the thought. Or I guess when I travelled down the Phoenix again soon for tournament games, I mused to myself. 

We also ended up giving each other coloured ombres in our hair out of boredom on Sunday. Bella chose a soft pink colour and I decided to go for a bright teal. Though the bleach reeked, we both felt that the ombres turned out pretty good looking. 

The rain ended up staying soft over the weekend, quiet, so I was finally able to sleep well. 

People greeted Bella and me in the parking lot Monday morning. Several of them commented on our hair when they saw it. Apparently dye jobs weren’t a common occurrence with the teenagers here. Back in Phoenix you could always see at least one person with coloured hair. I didn't know all their names, but I waved back and smiled at everyone, trying to mostly ignore hair related comments. It was colder this morning than it had been this weekend. In English, Mike took his accustomed seat by my side while Bella sat in front of me with a girl named Brianna she had befriended. We had a pop quiz on  _ Wuthering Heights _ . It was straightforward, and very very easy. 

All in all, I was feeling a lot more comfortable than I had thought I would feel by this point. More comfortable than I had ever expected to feel here, separated from my friends and teammates and in the arms of my potential vampire future. 

When we walked out of class, the air was full of swirling bits of white. I could hear people shouting excitedly to each other. The wind bit at my cheeks, my nose. I smiled and looked over at Bella, who blanched and hugged her arms around herself. 

I stuck my tongue out at her, catching a few of the puffs of snow on it. 

"Wow," Mike said. "It's snowing." 

I looked at the little cotton fluffs that were building up along the sidewalk and swirling erratically past my face. 

"Ew." Bella muttered off to the side.

He looked surprised. "Don't you like snow?" 

"Not particularly. Besides, I thought it was supposed to come down in flakes — you know, each one unique and all that. These just look like the ends of Q-tips." 

"Haven't you ever seen snow fall before?" he asked incredulously. 

"Sure I have." she trailed off. I knew she was thinking of our past lives when we lived in Canada. So I took the initiative. 

"On TV." I retorted while sticking my hand out and feeling the solid cold water melting on my palm. I disliked the cold but the snow was very pretty. 

Mike laughed. And then a big, squishy ball of dripping snow smacked into the back of his head. We all turned to see where it came from. I had my suspicions about Eric, who was walking away, his back toward us — in the wrong direction for his next class. Mike apparently had the same notion. He bent over and began scraping together a pile of the white mush. 

"I'll see you at lunch, okay?" Bella kept walking as she spoke, grabbing my arm and dragging me with her. "Once people start throwing wet stuff, I go inside." 

He just nodded, his eyes on Eric's retreating figure. 

Throughout the morning, everyone chatted excitedly about the snow; apparently it was the first snowfall of the new year. I was excited too, though for a different reason, we didn’t see a lot of snowfall in Phoenix. Bella kept muttering under her breath though, so I kept my mouth shut. 

“Sure, it’s drier than rain — until it melts in your socks.” Bella muttered under her breath on multiple occasions. 

I walked resolutely at my sister's side as she looked around alertly on our way to the cafeteria with Jessica after Spanish. Mush balls were flying everywhere. She kept a binder in her hands, ready to use it as a shield if necessary. Jessica thought it was hilarious, but I had shook my head at her when she had thought about throwing one at Bella herself. Bella might not like wet things, but competitiveness was also a thing she had, which might override this horror at snow. 

Mike caught up to us as we walked in the doors, laughing, with ice melting the spikes in his hair. He and Jessica were talking animatedly about the snow fight as we got in line to buy food. I glanced toward that table in the corner out of habit. And then I froze where I stood. There were five people at the table. 

Jessica pulled on my arm. As Bella starred at the table I was looking at. The five figures. My wide eyes met hers and she understood. 

"Hello? Kat? What do you want?" 

I looked down; my ears were hot. I had no reason to feel self-conscious, not yet anyways. 

"What's with Kat?" Mike asked Jessica and Bella. 

"Nothing," I answered. "I'll just get a ginger ale today." I caught up to the end of the line. 

"Aren't you hungry?" Jessica asked. 

"Actually, I feel a little sick," I said, my eyes still on the floor. 

I waited for the three of them to get their food, and then followed them to a table, my eyes on my feet. 

I sipped my ginger ale slowly, my stomach churning. Twice Mike asked, with unnecessary concern, how I was feeling. 

I told him it was nothing, but I was wondering if I should play it up and escape to the nurse's office for the next hour. Although, as soon as I thought of that I could see Bella shaking her head at me. I could read the words “chicken” in her eyes.

I know that I was being ridiculous. I shouldn't have to run away. 

I decided to permit myself one glance at the Cullen family's table. If he was glaring at me, I would skip Biology, like the coward I really was. 

I kept my head down and glanced up under my lashes. None of them were looking this way. I lifted my head a little. 

They were laughing. Edward, Jasper, and Emmett all had their hair entirely saturated with melting snow. Alice and Rosalie were leaning away as Emmett shook his dripping hair toward them. They were enjoying the snowy day, just like everyone else — only they looked more like a scene from a movie than the rest of us. 

But, aside from the laughter and playfulness, there was something different, and I couldn't quite pinpoint what that difference was. I examined Edward the most carefully. His skin was less pale, I decided — flushed from the snow fight maybe — the circles under his eyes much less noticeable. But there was something more. I pondered, staring, trying to isolate the change. 

"Kat, what are you staring at?" Jessica intruded, her eyes following my stare. 

At that precise moment, his eyes flashed over to meet mine. 

I dropped my head, letting my hair fall to conceal my face. I was sure, though, in the instant our eyes met, that he didn't look harsh or unfriendly as he had the last time I'd seen him. He looked merely curious again, unsatisfied in some way. 

"Edward Cullen is staring at you," Jessica giggled in my ear. 

"He doesn't look angry, does he?" I couldn't help asking. Though I knew the answer myself from the brief moment our eyes met.

"No," she said, sounding confused by my question. "Should he be?" 

"I don't think he likes me," I confided. I still felt queasy. I put my head down on my arm. I wish he didn’t like me. I wish I could say he always wouldn’t like me. God.

Bella starts laughing loudly at my statement and I just barely hold myself back from smacking her for it. Everyone at the table looked at her funny as her laughter died down. I know what she’s thinking, and we both know that’s not true. Though she doesn’t say it out loud, since the vampires would hear it if she said it. 

"The Cullens don't like anybody...well, they don't notice anybody enough to like them. But he's still staring at you." 

"Stop looking at him," I hissed. 

She snickered, but she looked away. I raised my head enough to make sure that she did, contemplating violence if she resisted. 

Mike interrupted us then — he was planning an epic battle of the blizzard in the parking lot after school and wanted us to join. Jessica agreed enthusiastically. The way she looked at Mike left little doubt that she would be up for anything he suggested. I kept silent. I would likely end up having to wait the snowball fight out with Bella before we could even think of heading home. I suppressed a groan and laid my head on top of my arms harder. As if I could shove them into my brain and cease to exist. 

For the rest of the lunch hour I very carefully kept my eyes at my own table. I decided to honor the bargain I'd made with myself. Since he didn't look angry, I would go to Biology. My stomach did frightened little flips at the thought of sitting next to him again. Bella grabbed my shoulder and gave it a squeeze for good measure as she moved to go to the gym early, probably hoping to avoid the snowball conflict that was sure to ensue before afternoon classes. 

I didn't really want to walk to class with Mike as usual — he seemed to be a popular target for the snowball snipers and I wasn’t in the mood — and as much as I liked the idea of snow, the thought of me being soaking wet for the rest of the day didn’t sit well. But when we went to the door, everyone beside me groaned in unison. It was raining, washing all traces of the snow away in clear, icy ribbons down the side of the walkway. I pulled my hood up, secretly pleased. We would be free to go straight home after school. 

Mike kept up a string of complaints on the way to building four. 

Once inside the classroom, I saw with relief that my table was still empty. Mr. Banner was walking around the room, distributing one microscope and box of slides to each table. I sighed as I took a glance at the slides, probably something easy and quick. If Edward really did show up and try to change my impression of him, then I would have to humour him I guess. Unfortunately class didn't start for a few minutes, and the room buzzed with conversation. I tried my best to keep my eyes away from the door, doodling idly on the cover of my notebook to try and distract myself from thinking about what was to come. 

I heard very clearly when the chair next to me moved, but my eyes stayed carefully focused on the pattern I was drawing. 

"Hello," said a quiet, musical voice. 

I looked up before my brain had even consciously consented to doing so, stunned that he was speaking to me, though I knew that he would. He was sitting as far away from me as the desk allowed, but his chair was angled toward me. His hair was dripping wet, disheveled — even so, he looked like he'd just finished shooting a commercial for hair gel. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a slight smile on his flawless lips. But his eyes were careful. 

"My name is Edward Cullen," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Kat Swan." 

My mind was spinning with confusion, questions, and theories. I had to speak; he was waiting. But I couldn't think of anything conventional to say. 

"H-how do you know my name?" I stammered. After my brain caught up to my runaway mouth I tried not to cringe too hard at what I said. Fuck me. 

He laughed a soft, enchanting laugh. 

"Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive." 

I grimaced. I knew it was something like that. But that’s not why I had said what I did. 

"No," I persisted stupidly. "I meant, why did you call me Kat?" 

He seemed confused. "Do you prefer Katrina?" 

"No, I like Kat," I said. "But I think Charlie — I mean my dad — must call me Katrina and my twin Isabella behind our backs — that's what everyone here seems to know us as," I tried to explain, feeling like an utter moron. My mouth moved faster than my brain could catch up.

"Oh." He let it drop. I looked away awkwardly. Trying to force myself to not look like a weirdo and smack my head against the desk. My mouth had moved and my brain had let it. Stupid, stupid me. Of course he knew I preferred Kat. Of course he knew Bella preferred her nickname too. Of course this stupid mind reading vampire knew. And I was the idiot who was engaging. 

Thankfully, Mr. Banner started class at that moment. I tried to concentrate as he explained the lab we would be doing today. The slides in the box were out of order. Working as lab partners, we had to separate the box of slides of onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis they represented and label them accordingly. We weren't supposed to use our books. In twenty minutes, he would be coming around to see who had it right. 

"Get started," he commanded. 

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. I looked up to see him smiling a crooked smile so beautiful that I could only stare at him like an idiot. My brain stuttered as it tried to restart. I couldn’t make it move, it was like I was stunned by this very pretty, odd boy in front of me. 

"Or I could start, if you wish." The smile faded; he was obviously wondering if I was mentally competent. 

"No," I said, flushing scarlet. "I'll go ahead." 

I was showing off, just a little. I'd already done this lab many times both this life and the last, and I knew exactly what I was looking for. It should be easy. I snapped the first slide into place under the microscope and adjusted it quickly to the 40X objective. I studied the slide briefly. 

My assessment was confident. "Prophase." 

"Do you mind if I look?" he asked as I began to remove the slide. His hand caught mine, to stop me, as he asked. His fingers were ice-cold, like he'd been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn't why I jerked my hand away so quickly. When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us. Fucking eh. 

"I'm sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand back immediately. However, he continued to reach for the microscope. I watched him, still staggered, as he examined the slide for an even shorter time than I had. 

"Prophase," he agreed, writing it neatly in the space on our worksheet for the slide number. He swiftly switched out the first slide for the second, and then glanced at it cursorily. 

"Anaphase," he murmured, writing it down as he spoke. 

I tried my best to keep my voice indifferent. "May I?" 

He smirked and pushed the microscope to me. 

I looked through the eyepiece eagerly, only to be disappointed. Dang it, he was right. And then I wanted to beat myself up for that thought. Of course he was right, this century old vampire. Actually, he probably didn’t even need to use the microscope. Good god, get a grip girl. 

"Slide three?" I held out my hand without looking at him. 

He handed it to me; it seemed like he was being very careful not to touch my skin again. 

I took the most fleeting look I could manage. 

"Interphase." I passed him the microscope before he could ask for it. He took a swift peek, and then wrote it down. I would have written it while he looked, but his clear, elegant script intimidated me. I didn't want to spoil the page with my clumsy chicken scratch. 

We were finished long before anyone else was close. I could see Mike and his partner comparing two slides again and again, and another group had their book open under the table. 

Which left me with nothing to do but try to not look at him... unsuccessfully I might add. I glanced up, and he was staring at me, that same inexplicable look of frustration in his eyes. Suddenly I identified that subtle difference in his face. 

"Did you get contacts?" I blurted out unthinkingly. I wanted to scold myself. Slap my wrist and shout “bad dog”. I didn’t want to engage, but my mouth moved on its own, as if compelled. This is what I get for never trying to be reserved with my thoughts and words before now.

He seemed puzzled by my unexpected question. "No." 

"Oh," I mumbled, "I thought there was something different about your eyes." 

He shrugged, and looked away. 

In fact, I was sure there was something different. I vividly remembered the flat black color of his eyes the last time he'd glared at me — the color was striking against the background of his pale skin and his auburn hair. Today, his eyes were a completely different color: a strange ocher, darker than butterscotch, but with the same golden tone. My brain stuttered over the reason why that was, the reason that I knew at least from the novel in my past life. 

I looked down. His hands were clenched into hard fists again. 

Just then Mr. Banner came to our table, to see why we weren't working. He looked over our shoulders to glance at the completed lab, and then stared more intently to check the answers. 

"So, Edward, didn't you think Katrina should get a chance with the microscope?" Mr. Banner asked. 

"Kat," Edward corrected automatically. "Actually, she identified three of the five." 

Mr. Banner looked at me now; his expression was skeptical. Well fuck you too there buddy, I wanted to say. "Have you done this lab before?" he asked. 

I smiled, though not politely. Honestly, Bella would have hit me if she were here, and that was the only reason I kept my thoughts mostly to myself right now. "Not with onion root." 

"Whitefish blastula?" 

"Yeah." 

Mr. Banner nodded. "Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix?" 

"Of course." I muttered, feeling a little smug. Bella and I were in all advanced placement programs back in Phoenix. Mostly because of our previous lifes knowledge helping us to progress quickly and efficiently through school. Even if that made school a lot more boring. Honestly, Bella and I could be in college right now, if we had elected to skip grades. We hadn’t though, deciding to ride it out, study things of interest in our own time. Such as languages. But here we were, juniors in high school instead.

"Well," he said after a moment, "I guess it's good you two are lab partners." He mumbled something else as he walked away. I could guess that it was probably something about letting the other students have a chance to learn or something along those lines and I held back my tongue from sticking it out childishly at him. After he left, I began doodling on my notebook again. This time I was drawing eyeballs instead of flowers. 

"It's too bad about the snow, isn't it?" Edward asked. I had the feeling that he was forcing himself to make small talk with me. Paranoia swept over me again. It was like he had heard my conversation with Jessica at lunch and was trying to prove me wrong. No wait, of course he heard my conversation with Jessica at lunch. Again, I wanted to smack myself over the head a few times.

"Eh," I answered honestly, instead of pretending to be normal like everyone else. I was still trying to dislodge the stupid brain fried mentality of just blurting things out all willy nilly. I couldn't concentrate when I was with him, looking into his eyes. God I was starting to sound like a love struck idiot.

"You don't like the cold." It wasn't a question. 

"Eh,” I repeated before answering more fully, “Or the wet really. Bella’s worse though," I tried for nonchalance. I probably failed for nonchalance too. 

"Forks must be a difficult place for you to live," he mused. 

"It’s fine, I'll survive," I chuckled darkly. God, do I really need the morbid sense of humour too?

He looked fascinated by what I said, for some reason I couldn't imagine. His face was such a distraction, it could fry my brain instantly, that I tried not to look at it any more than courtesy absolutely demanded. 

"Why did you come here, then?" 

No one had asked Bella or me that — not straight out like he did, demanding. 

"It's... complicated." 

"I think I can keep up," he pressed. 

I paused for a long moment, and then made the mistake of meeting his gaze. His dark gold eyes confused me, addled my brain more than the stupid thing already was, and I answered without thinking.

"My mother got remarried," I started simply. Clamping my mouth shut though before more personal things could come pouring out. This boy could demand anything of me with those eyes and I would probably hand it over. A pound of flesh and all.

"That doesn't sound so complex," he disagreed, but he was suddenly sympathetic. "When did that happen?" 

"Last September." My voice sounded sad, even to me. 

"And you don't like him," Edward surmised, his tone still kind. 

"No, Phil is fine. Too young, maybe, but nice enough." 

"Why didn't you stay with them?" 

I couldn't fathom his interest, I was a normal, or well, mostly normal, teenager. But he continued to stare at me with penetrating eyes, as if my dull life's story was somehow vitally important to this beautiful vampire. 

"Phil travels a lot. He plays baseball for a living." I half-smiled. 

"Have I heard of him?" he asked, smiling in response. 

"Probably not. He doesn't play  _ well _ . Strictly minor league. He moves around a lot." 

"And your mother sent you here so that she could travel with him." He said it as an assumption again, not a question. 

My chin raised a fraction. "No, she did not send me here. Bella and I, we sent ourselves." 

His eyebrows knit together. "I don't understand," he admitted, and he seemed unnecessarily frustrated by that fact. 

I sighed. Why was I explaining this to him? He continued to stare at me with obvious curiosity. 

"She stayed with us at first, but she missed him. It made her unhappy... so the two of us decided it was time to spend some quality time with Charlie." 

"But now you're unhappy," he pointed out. 

"And?" I said, as if challenging him. “Besides I wouldn’t necessarily say unhappy,” I muttered before he could say anything. I wasn’t unhappy, just adjusting.

"That doesn't seem fair." He shrugged, but his eyes were still intense. 

I scoffed.  _ He  _ of all people was telling me that. "Hasn't anyone ever told you? Life isn't fair." 

"I believe I  _ have  _ heard that somewhere before," he agreed dryly. 

"So that's all," I insisted, wondering why he was still staring at me that way. What more could he want to pull from my yielding lips?

His gaze became appraising. "You put on a good show," he said slowly. "But I'd be willing to bet that you're suffering more than you let anyone see." 

I grimaced at him, resisting the impulse to stick out my tongue like a five-year-old, and looked away. I couldn’t exactly tell him that the majority of my suffering was caused by the mere existence of him and his vampire clan.

"Am I wrong?" 

I tried to ignore him. 

"I didn't think so," he murmured smugly. 

"Why does it matter to  _ you _ ?" I asked, irritated. I kept my eyes away, watching the teacher make his rounds so that I wouldn’t blurt anymore unnecessary facts about myself out.

"That's a very good question," he muttered, so quietly that I wondered if he was talking to himself. However, after a few seconds of silence, I decided that was the only answer I was going to get. 

I sighed, scowling at the blackboard. 

"Am I annoying you?" he asked. He sounded amused. 

I glanced at him without thinking... and told the truth again. "Not exactly. I'm more annoyed at myself. My face is so easy to read — my mother, and my friends, always call me their open book." I frowned. 

"On the contrary, I find you very difficult to read." Despite everything that I'd said and he'd guessed, he sounded like he meant it. Which indicated that my mind was safe from his mind reading. Thank fucking god. 

"Hmm, You consider yourself a good reader then?" I asked swiftly. 

"Usually." He smiled widely, flashing a set of perfect, ultrawhite teeth. 

Mr. Banner called the class to order as our conversation came to a close, and I turned with relief to listen. I was in disbelief that I'd just explained the dreary life of the Swan twins to this bizarre, beautiful, vampire boy who most probably should despise me. He'd seemed engrossed in our conversation, but now I could see, from the corner of my eye, that he was leaning away from me again, his hands gripping the edge of the table with unmistakable tension.

I tried to appear attentive as Mr. Banner illustrated, with transparencies on the overhead projector, such old age technologies when we had smart boards in so many of the classrooms back in phoenix, what I had seen without difficulty through the microscope. But my thoughts were scattered to the four winds, I couldn’t make hide-nor-hair of them. 

When the bell finally rang, Edward rushed as swiftly and as gracefully from the room as he had last Monday. And, like last Monday, I stared after him in amazement. 

Mike skipped quickly to my side and picked up my books for me. Though the gesture was completely unnecessary, and not entirely appreciated, I didn’t have the heart to stop him today after letting myself get carried away by Edward. 

"That was awful," he groaned. "They all looked exactly the same. You're lucky you had Cullen for a partner." 

"I didn't have any trouble with it," I said, stung by his assumption. "I've done the lab before, though," I added, my tone still slightly harsh, though I tried to amend the snub before he could get his feelings hurt. Bella had been drilling it into me lately that I needed to stay civil in this tiny town. And as much as I didn’t like Mike’s affections for me, I liked Mike as a friend so I needed to stay civil. 

"Cullen seemed friendly enough today," he commented as we shrugged into our raincoats. He didn't seem pleased about it. 

I tried to sound indifferent. "I wonder what was with him last Monday." 

I could form coherent thoughts with Mike and the others, just not with the inhumanly beautiful boy that was my lab partner. That was going to get me into some trouble in the not so distant future. Bella was going to kill me when she found out. 

I couldn't concentrate properly on Mike's chatter as we walked to the Gym, and P.E. didn't do much to hold my attention, either. Mike was on my team today for volleyball, and I did pretty okay. Although my serves were not the best. I was definitely better with my feet than my hands when it came to sports. 

The rain was just a mist as I walked to the parking lot, but I was happier when I was in the dry cab. I got the heater running, for once not caring about the mind-numbing roar of the engine. I unzipped my jacket, put the hood down, and fluffed my damp hair out so the heater could dry it on the way home. 

Bella hopped into the cab as I was doing this, staring at her phone and looking pleased. 

“Tess message?” I asked only briefly, and she nodded her head in excitement. 

“We’re going to call again tonight. Amanda and Noah are staying over at Holly’s and Tess’ house tonight. We could both call in if you want.” She smiles at me, and I feel the tension in my shoulders ease immensely. 

“That might be fun,” I mused lightly as I looked around me to make sure it was clear. That's when I noticed the still, white figure. Edward Cullen was leaning against the front door of the Volvo, three cars down from me, and staring intently in my direction. I swiftly looked away and threw the truck into reverse, almost hitting a rusty Toyota Corolla in my haste. Lucky for the Toyota , I stomped on the brake in time. It was just the sort of car that the truck would make scrap metal of. 

“Hey, woah!” Bella cried out and I took a deep breath, still looking out the other side of the cab, and cautiously pulled out again, with greater success. I stared straight ahead as I passed the Volvo, but from a peripheral peek, I would swear I saw him laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #swantwinsarebeasts
> 
> me re-reading the chapter before posting it on Eds response to Kat and Bella's reason for moving to Forks: Edward you were turned into a vamp on your fucking death bed after your entire family died of an illness, you have to drink blood to survive and you for some unknown ungodly reason continually go to high school .. like the fuck do you mean that doesn't seem fair????


	4. Phenomenon

When I opened my eyes in the morning, something was different. 

It was the light. It was still the gray-green light of a cloudy day in the forest, but it was clearer somehow. I realized there was no fog veiling my window. 

I jumped up to look outside, and then groaned in horror. 

All the rain from yesterday had frozen solid — coating the needles on the trees in fantastic, gorgeous patterns, and making the driveway a deadly ice slick. It might be safer for me to go back to bed now. 

I decided to forgo my normal morning run, afraid I might slip and hurt myself in the forest somewhere where no one could find me. It was better to play it safe rather than be sorry about it later. 

Charlie had left for work before I got downstairs. In a lot of ways, living with Charlie was like Bella and I having our own place, and I found myself reveling in the absence instead of being lonely. 

As Bella descended the stairs I looked at her and smiled.

“Looks like black ice,” she muttered as she grabbed a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I noticed the thick sweater she was wearing was previously hanging in the closet from my room. She had probably looked out the window while in there, seeing the same horrible sight I had earlier. 

I was just finishing up my yoghurt and granola as she sat to plow through her own breakfast. I felt excited, almost jittery to go to school, and that scared me. I knew it wasn't the stimulating learning environment I was anticipating, or seeing my new set of friends. If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid. 

I should be avoiding him entirely after my brainless and embarrassing babbling yesterday. Even more so because of what I knew about him. I was still frightened of the hostility I sometimes felt emanating from him, and I was still tongue-tied whenever I pictured his perfect face. I was well aware that my league and his league were spheres that did not touch. So I shouldn't be at all anxious to see him today. 

“I can’t believe that the great Katrina Swan, the girl that no man could fell, would be swept up by fate.” My sister joked at me as she washed her bowl. 

“God I know!” I cried, palming my face, a bit angry at myself. I can’t be this crazy and obsessed over a boy, even if I knew that boy may become more important later. I can’t just throw away my life and ambitions because of him. Or even my brain function. That was a major one. 

“I blurt out anything he wants as soon as I look into his eyes!” I muttered under my breath and Bella just chuckled at me as we got our bags and threw on our coats and boots. 

“I can’t believe my sister finally went boy crazy, over none other than her vampire soulmate,” My sister teased me, poking my back as I tried and failed to march down the icy driveway with dignity. 

“Oh shut up.” I said as I hopped into the driver's seat and started the engine, hoping to bring some heat back into my finger tips. 

“So next question,” I started after Bella had hopped into the cab with me. 

“Hmm?”

“Do we let this play out how it would have? Or do we avoid the accident entirely and see where it goes from here?” I asked, genuinely wondering how we should proceed with today. If I had remembered correctly, black ice meant a fun little Edward and OG Bella bonding moment. So, that meant I was probably the main stage actor. Though, I could probably avoid it if I tried hard enough. Probably. 

“I think we should let it play out. This is a fairly minor incident compared to so many others no?” She said while touching her chin, thinking about it for a few moments as I pulled our way out towards the school. I nodded my head, agreeing that this could really be the be all and end all test, even if we didn’t need it. Then I thought of a topic change. 

“So Eric hey?” I asked Bella, an evil smirk lighting my face. 

She blanched at my question giving me a glare, “So Mike eh?” She responded in kind, with an unfriendly twitch of her eyebrow. 

“Oh shut up, even IF Mike was my type, Jessica would gut me for sure.” I muttered. 

“And Eric is entirely the wrong gender,” Bella snarked at me, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“Oh I know, I just have no idea how the awkward Isabella Swan is going to deal with the onslaught of male affections.” I teased as I pull into the parking lot at the school. Bella harrumphed at my statement, going quiet instead of trying to get into a battle of tongues with me. I was usually pretty good with my words, with one glaring exception to this rule apparently. 

When I pulled into a parking spot Bella had hardly even waited for me to park the car before she was out the door, making her way away from me and the truck. 

“Oh come on!” I cried as I tried to quickly remove myself from the cab and chase after my pouting twin. “Bella please! I was only teasing!” I called after her retreating figure, feeling the stares of several people looking at me. I sighed, noticing that I had parked on a particularly slick patch of ice, I made my way carefully towards the back of my truck, watching my feet as I went. Hoping that I could chase her down as soon as I got off the ice.

Just as I reached the back corner of the truck I heard an odd sound, like tires screeching. I glanced straight up at first seeing Edward Cullen standing a handful of cars down from me staring at me in horror. But everyone else’s faces around him too, though none of them registered enough for me to know who they were, were masks of shock and horror similar to Edwards. 

I glanced to my right and at that moment I saw the dark blue van that was skidding precariously across the ice right towards me, and where I stood, at the back of the truck. 

Oh fuck, I had already forgotten about this even though Bella and I had JUST talked about it. 

My mouth barely had time to fall open in an exclamation of shock before something hit me, hard. But not a two tonne metal frame of a vehicle like I had briefly wondered would be my end. My body hit the blacktop with force, and I could feel my head bounce off of it, though not hard enough for me to see stars. I felt something solid and cold pinning me to the ground. I was laying on the pavement behind the tan car that I had parked beside, the van still coming for me as if bending towards me purposely. 

I heard a low musical voice close to my ear swear dangerously, making me aware of my companion in all of this, my guardian vampire as he would eventually call himself. Two nimble, white hands shot out protectively in front of me and the van shuddered to a stop in response only a foot away from my face. The large hands fitting perfectly into deep dents in the side of the vans body. 

Then the hands moved so fast I could barely keep up. One was under the van, holding it in place and the other wrapped around me and dragged my legs out of the path of the van, swinging me around easily as if I was no more than a ragdoll in the hands of a child. A groaning metallic thud sounded through my head and the van fell to the ground, glass shattering, right where my legs had been only moments before. 

The world was silent and still for a fraction of a second before I could hear screams of shock and horror. More than one person shouting my name, the clearest voice though was not the shouting, but the frantic boy beside me, calling me from only a short distance from my face. 

“Kat are you alright?” Edward Cullen asked me, worry creasing the lines of his face as he assessed me. 

“I’m….” I paused taking a moment to assess myself after all that happened. “I’m fine” I finally decided. I tried to sit up and realised that he still had his arm wrapped around my waist, holding me in an iron grip against his body. 

“Be careful,” he warned me as I struggled. “I think you hit your head pretty hard.” 

“Mmm, I’ve had worse,” I tried to shrug it off, though there was a dull throb just above my left ear. I gently raised my hand to the side of my head and lightly ran it over the spot that throbbed. Tender, but nothing too noteworthy. I still muttered under my breath though as I touched the spot, wincing a tad. 

“That’s what I thought,” His voice, sounded as if he was suppressing laughter at my reaction.

“How did you…” I muttered, looking back up at him, mesmerised by his beautiful eyes, “How'd you get over here so fast?” I asked, my brain telling my mouth immediately to not continue into this line of questioning. I already knew how he got here so fast, I didn’t need to cause myself more headache. 

He looked at me, his eyes serious, “I was standing right next to you Kat.”

I pushed his arm away, sitting up, and he let me go, moving himself as far away from me as he could in the tight space. I watched as his face held only concern and innocence in all of this. I knew better, though I wasn’t going to say anything to him,  _ yet _ . 

“Katrina!” I heard a frantic shout from behind the cars blocking view. I winced again as I recognised the voice of my twin sister as she frantically shouted to get me out of there and make sure I was okay. I could hear other people shouting out instructions such as not to move, or to get the driver, Tyler, out of the van. 

I wanted to stand up, to pacify my sister and to move my way off the icy ground, but Edwards' hand gently held my shoulder, preventing me from doing anything. 

“Just stay put for now.” 

“But Bella….” I muttered before putting my hands on the ground, feeling the cold beneath my hands I blanched, clutching my hands to my chest in hopes to warm them. “It’s cold,” I breathed in complaint and I heard Edward chuckling under his breath at my last statement. Though there seemed to be a sharper edge to the sound. 

“You were over there,” I suddenly blurted out, as if my mouth had detached from the rest of my body and was going for a ride on its own, his chuckles stopped short. “You were by your car with your sister.” 

His expression hardened marginally. “No, I wasn’t.”

“I saw you,” I said stubbornly. I was not going to lose my footing in this argument now that I had started it. I ignored the chaos around us to the best of my abilities. Although part of me understood that adults had finally made it onto the scene. 

“Kat, I was standing with you and I pulled you out of the way.” He unleashed the full, devastating power of his eyes on me, as if trying to get me to agree through hypnotism or something. 

I folded my arms harder, and I dug my nails into my arms, trying to keep myself sane enough to not just give this beautiful, hypnotising boy whatever he wanted. “No” I said, sounding sulky in my own ears. 

His eyes seemed to blaze with golden fire as he spoke “Kat, please.”

“Why?” I demanded, quite aggressively. 

“Trust me,” He pleaded with me, his soft voice almost overwhelming me, making me fold into his will. I frowned more, forcing my voice down. I could not be a weak bitch when it comes to this boy. He could not have that much sway over my actions. 

Of course, I could tell myself that in my head, it was a completely different ball game when it came to the rest of me in this prickly vampire’s presence. 

I could hear the sirens now as I stared at Edwards' face, his earnest expression. I let out a breath, “Promise that you will explain later, okay?” 

“Fine,” he snapped at me, aggravated by my uncooperativeness. 

“Fine,” I repeated, attempting the same tone, though my voice paled in comparison with his. 

It took six EMTs and two teachers — Mr. Varner and Coach Clapp — to shift the van far enough away from us to bring the stretchers in. Bella rushing in with them, and over to me. 

“Are you okay Kat?” She asked, panic evident in her tone. Her hands fluttered around me as if to check and see if I was alright. Her earlier annoyance with me was forgotten in the aftermath of the accident.

“I’m fine Bella,” I whispered, giving her a pointed look. I hoped that Edward didn’t see it as he was vehemently refusing his stretcher. I tried to do the same, but the traitor told them I'd hit my head and probably had a concussion. 

Bella’s face paled at this and she looked at me as if she had been stabbed. I rolled my eyes at her and she just sighed quietly, understanding that my head wasn’t damaged at least. 

The EMTs insisted on putting a neck brace on me, even though I told them again and again that I didn’t have a concussion. I finally just let them do it, it was better to get out of here fast than to argue with these people who had been told by Edward that I had hit my head. 

When they lifted me away from the car, I saw a deep dent in the tan car's bumper — a very distinct dent that fit the contours of Edward's shoulders... as if he had braced himself against the car with enough force to damage the metal frame... 

And then there was his family, looking on from the distance, with expressions that ranged from disapproval to fury but held no hint of concern for their brother's safety. 

Of course, it looked like the entire school was here watching as I was getting ready to be loaded into the back of the second ambulance, the first having already left, probably carrying Tyler. Bella planned to follow into the back, insisting on coming with me, and Edward got to ride in the front. 

Of course, just before we could actually get me loaded into the ambulance, a cruiser pulled in. Charlie barely stopped the car before he rushed out and towards me and Bella. 

“Rina! Bella!” He yelled in an absolute panic as he saw the two of us, me on a stretcher. 

“I’m fine dad,” I tried to calm him and Bella nodded, though he didn’t look convinced what with me strapped to a stretcher in a neck brace. I sighed heavily as he turned to the EMT closest to him for a second opinion. I rolled my eyes and Bella just smiled at me as they finally loaded me into the ambulance, Bella following closely behind. 

“I envy you,” I muttered as I stared at her sitting on one of the benches, opposite the EMT sitting with us. 

“Haha, of course you do!” She crowed, a mocking smile plastered on her face. I frowned and sighed again. 

Naturally, the ambulance got a police escort all the way to the county hospital. Edward glided through the doors as soon as we got there, I had to be stretchered in. I felt like the world was laughing at me since even though nothing was wrong, I was being treated like this. 

They put me in the emergency room, a long room with a line of beds separated by pastel-patterned curtains. A nurse put a pressure cuff on my arm and a thermometer under my tongue. Since no one bothered pulling the curtain around to give me some privacy, I decided I wasn't obligated to wear the stupid-looking and unnecessary neck brace anymore. When the nurse walked away, I quickly unfastened the Velcro and threw it under the bed. 

Bella laughed at me as she sat on the foot of my bed, watching the entire thing unfold. 

“You know you aren’t supposed to do that, right?” She asked me, her amusement coloured her voice, and I sighed. Not responding, just ignoring my twin. 

There was another rush of hospital personnel, another stretcher brought to the bed next to mine. I recognised Tyler Corwley from my government class beneath the bloodstained bandages wrapped tightly around his head. He looked a hundred times worse off than I was, but he was staring anxiously at me. 

“Kat, I’m so sorry!” 

“I’m fine Tyler, really. You though, you look awful. Are you alright?” As we spoke, nurses began unwinding his soiled bandages exposing a number of shallow wounds all over his forehead and left cheek. Probably from the glass that shattered when Edward dropped the van. 

Tyler ignored my question though as he started to chatter. “I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast, and I hit the ice wrong…” He winced suddenly as the nurse started to dab at the scratches on his face. 

“Don’t worry,” I forced a slight chuckle for good measure, “You missed me.”

“How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there, and then you were gone…”

“Ummm…” I thought for a moment, well fuck it. In for a penny, in for a pound. “Edward pulled me out of the way.”

He looked at me confused. “Who?”

“Edward Cullen, he was standing next to me” I quirked the one corner of my mouth, hoping Tyler would just take my lead. I saw Bella rolling her eyes at me, but luckily she was facing away from Tyler so he wouldn’t see it. Of course, I couldn’t pantomime for her to shut the fuck up because Tyler would definitely see that. So I just eyed her sharply hoping she wouldn’t say shit. 

“Cullen? I didn’t see him…” He paused for a moment as if trying to look back and remember. “Wow, it was all so fast, I guess. Is he okay?” 

“I think so,” I mused, amused by the thought of a measly van hurting a vampire of all things, “He’s somewhere in this hospital, but they didn’t make him use a stretcher.” Now _ that  _ would have been a sight. A vampire on a stretcher.

After that they made me remove my copious amounts of piercings and leave them with my twin as they wheeled me away to X-ray my head. I told them there was nothing wrong, and I was right. Not even a concussion. I asked if I could leave, but the nurse said I had to talk to a doctor first. Get their seal of approval on my departure. So I was trapped in the ER, waiting, harassed by Tyler 's constant apologies and promises to make it up to me. No matter how many times I tried to convince him I was fine, he continued to torment himself. Bella seemed to find all of this hilarious though, and was trying her very best to hold back her laughter. Finally, I closed my eyes and ignored the both of them. Tyler kept up a remorseful mumbling. 

"Hey Bella, is she sleeping?" a musical voice asked. My eyes flew open in an instant. 

Edward was standing at the foot of my bed, smirking. I glared at him. It wasn't easy — it would have been more natural to ogle. I had to keep reminding myself that he was a vampire and I should definitely not be attracted to him. Stupid fate. 

"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry —" Tyler began. 

Edward lifted a hand to stop him. 

"No blood, no foul," he said, flashing his brilliant teeth. He moved to sit on the edge of Tyler 's bed, even with all the fresh blood that Tyler was releasing into the world, facing me and by default Bella. He smirked again in my direction. 

"So, what's the verdict?" he asked me. 

"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go," I complained. "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?" I whined, almost exaggeratedly, making Bella have to try even harder to hide her hysterics. She was probably imagining a vampire on a stretcher as I had earlier. 

"It's all about who you know," he answered, his voice a little haughty. "But don't worry, I came to spring you." 

Then a doctor walked around the corner, and my mouth fell open against my will. Oh my god, I was never going to trust random book descriptions ever again. He was young, he was blond... and he was handsomer than any movie star I'd ever seen. He was pale, though, and tired-looking, with circles under his eyes. From Charlie's description, this had to be Edward's father. 

Bella’s mouth seemed to have fallen open too, both of us taken aback by this beautiful creature coming towards us. Hard to believe he was around twenty-five, acting closer to thirty. He looked ageless. 

"So, Miss Swan," Dr. Cullen said in a remarkably appealing voice after eyeing both Bella and I as he said it, "Miss’ Swan,” He nodded in Bella’s direction before looking at me again, “how are you feeling?" 

"I'm fine," I said, for the last time, I hoped. God, I should have just elected to avoid this accident entirely if it was going to be this troublesome. 

He walked to the lightboard on the wall over my head, and turned it on. Though I looked at Bella pointedly when he did so. I knew for a fact he didn’t need to turn anything on to see my x-ray perfectly fine. Me on the other hand, needed the lightboard to even be able to begin to decipher my own x-rays. 

"Your X-rays look good," he said. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard." 

"It's fine," I repeated with a sigh, throwing a quick scowl toward Edward. I really wish he hadn’t said anything, even though I know that he had just been worried that he himself had hurt me. It was aggravating that I couldn’t say anything. Should I avoid the whole debacle after this visit too? Just walk out of here ignoring Edward on my own terms, using his weirdness as an excuse?

The doctor's cool fingers probed lightly along my skull, startling me a little bit from my thoughts. He noticed when I winced in surprise. 

"Tender?" he asked. 

"Not really." I'd had worse. So much worse. I was a defensemen as well as the backup goaltender for Amanda. I knew concussions. And I didn’t want to explain that his cold touch had actually startled me out of thinking about how best to deal with this vampire situation I seemed to have found myself in. He probably wouldn’t have taken too kindly to knowing that. 

I heard a deep chuckle, and looked over to see Edward's patronizing smile. My eyes narrowed in his direction. I wanted so badly to tell him to fuck off. But Bella’s hand landed on my leg, forcing me to look at her for a moment, and then her subtle head shake telling me to keep my thoughts and words to myself. I barely held back a huff in contempt. 

"Well, your father is in the waiting room — you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all." 

"Can't I go back to school?" I asked, imagining Charlie trying to be attentive all day, Bella would probably be going back to school too. I’d much prefer to be with Bella for the day. 

"Maybe you should take it easy today." 

I glanced at Edward. "Does  _ he  _ get to go to school?" I tried for a snide remark, much to Bella’s chagrin. 

"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," Edward said smugly. And Bella just coughed subtly, hinting at her own presence here. I tried not to laugh at that. 

Carlisle looked between the three of us for a moment before speaking. "Actually, most of the school seems to be in the waiting room." 

"Riiiight," I muttered to myself, covering my face with my hands. Of course, the whole school had to know the outcome of the not so friendly swan twin. This time Bella couldn’t hold in her snickers. I looked up at her, glaring furiously. 

Dr. Cullen raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to stay?" 

"No, no!" I insisted, throwing my legs over the side of the bed and hopping down quickly. Too quickly — I staggered, and Dr. Cullen caught me. He looked concerned. 

"I'm fine," I assured him again.

"Take some Tylenol for the pain," he suggested as he steadied me. 

"It doesn't hurt that bad," I insisted. 

"It sounds like you were extremely lucky," Dr. Cullen said, smiling as he signed my chart with a flourish. As Bella came up next to me and handed me the pile of piercings that she had been holding onto for me. 

"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me," I amended with a hard glance at the subject of my statement. I then looked down at my hand and started to slowly put my piercings back into place. Bella, having already ditched me and headed our fathers way already, to tell him I’d be there soon. 

"Oh, well, yes," Dr. Cullen agreed, suddenly occupied with the papers in front of him. Then he looked away, at Tyler, and walked to the next bed. I noticed the near imperceptible way the Dr. looked at Edward as he was speaking to Tyler. 

"I'm afraid that  _ you'll  _ have to stay with us just a little bit longer," he said to Tyler , and began checking his cuts. 

As soon as the doctor's back was turned, I moved to Edward's side. Finally deciding my best course of action currently, was to confront him as promised. I could deal with the rest of the aftermath later. 

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I hissed under my breath. I knew that Dr. Cullen could hear my whispering, though human ears shouldn’t be able to. I pretended that I didn’t know this fact however, and hissed at Edward anyways. He took a step back from me, his jaw suddenly clenched. 

"Your father and sister are waiting for you," he said through his teeth. 

I glanced at Dr. Cullen and Tyler, mostly looking to make sure Tyler’s attention wasn’t on us. I knew already that I would never get that with the older vampire. 

"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind," I pressed. 

He glared, and then turned his back and strode down the long room. I nearly had to run to keep up. As soon as we turned the corner into a short hallway, he spun around to face me. 

"What do you want?" he asked, sounding annoyed. His eyes were cold. Almost like he didn’t expect me to confront him like I practically promised I would only a few short hours ago. 

His unfriendliness intimidated me though. My words came out with much less severity than I'd originally intended. A surprising thing for me who seemed to run on snark and sarcasm 99% of the time. "You owe me an explanation," I reminded him. 

"I saved your life — I don't  _ owe _ you anything." 

I flinched back automatically from the resentment in his voice. "You promised." 

"Kat, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about." His tone was cutting and I felt the anger surge at his words. God, I wish I could just punch him. But I didn’t want to have to just turn right back around to go back to Carlisle and get my hand bandaged. That would just be another thing on the list of ever growing oddities around me now.

I glared defiantly at him, snapping since it was the only thing I could do. "There's nothing wrong with my head. You know that." 

He glared back. "What do you want from me, Kat?" 

I was almost taken aback by the question. How should I play this one? I barely deliberated before I blurted out my own response though. “I want to know the truth. I want to know why I'm lying for you." 

"What do you  _ think  _ happened?" he snapped. God, the arrogant prick was playing me like the cheap kazoo I was.

I simply opened my mouth and it came out in a rush. 

"All I know is that you weren't anywhere near me —Tyler didn't see you, either, so don't tell me I hit my head too hard. That van was going to crush us both — and it didn't, and your hands left dents in the side of it — and you left a dent in the other car, and you're not hurt at all — and the van should have smashed my legs, but you were holding it up..." I could hear how crazy it sounded saying all of this outloud, and I couldn't continue. Even though I knew _how_ he could do all of this, I really wanted to know why. Why the heck was he so desperate to save me - besides the obvious reasons. But I couldn’t exactly explain all of that to this inexplicably good looking vampire now could I? I was so mad I could feel the tears coming; I tried to force them back by grinding my teeth together.

He was just standing there, staring at me incredulously. But his face was tense, defensive. Of course, I’d seen everything and he couldn’t deny it. He only had so much he could use off of this right now. 

"You think I lifted a van off you?" His tone questioned my sanity, but it only made me more angry. He really kept crossing that line with the whole head trauma thing. I wanted to hit him, hit something so bad. It was only now that I was realising how much of a violent person I actually was.

Don’t hit him, don’t hit him, I tried to chant in my head. So I merely nodded once, jaw tight. 

"Nobody will believe that, you know." His voice held an edge of derision now. 

"I'm not going to tell anybody." I said each word slowly, carefully controlling my anger. Trying to make him understand that I wasn’t going to oust his secret. Because if I did, I would have to out my own too at this point. 

Surprise flitted across his face. "Then why does it matter?" 

"It matters to me," I insisted. "I don't like to lie — so there'd better be a good reason why I'm doing it." 

"Can't you just thank me and get over it?" 

"Thank you." I waited, fuming and expectant. 

"You're not going to let it go, are you?" 

"Of course not." 

"In that case... I hope you enjoy disappointment." I had to use every single piece of willpower inside me to not stick my tongue out at the incredibly, aggravatingly good looking vampire standing in front of me. 

We scowled at each other in silence. I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused. I was definitely in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel. 

"Why did you even bother?" I asked frigidly. Wondering why the heck he’d stop a van from squishing a girl he’d just met who had nothing to do with him yet. Let alone barely spoke to for more than a handful of minutes. My bloods appeal to him be damned. 

He paused, and for a brief moment his stunning face was unexpectedly open and vulnerable. 

"I don't know," he whispered. 

And then he turned his back on me and walked away. 

I was lost in between being so angry I wanted to hit something and mystified by the eternal beauty that was that goddamned vampire's face. It took me a few minutes until I could move from where I stood, rooted in the hallway of the hospital. When I could finally walk, I made my way slowly to the exit at the end of the hall. 

The waiting room was more unpleasant than I'd feared. It seemed like every face I knew in Forks was there, staring at me. Charlie rushed to my side, Bella following shortly there behind him. I put up my hands. 

"There's nothing wrong with me," I assured him. He had to know that I’ve survived worse. 

"What did the doctor say?" I wanted to beat my head against the wall. I just said I was fine. Well maybe my temper wasn’t. 

"Dr. Cullen saw me, and he said I was fine and I could go home." I sighed. Mike and Jessica and others were all there, beginning to converge on us. "Let's go," I urged, not really in the best of moods to chat with my, sort of, friends. 

Charlie put one arm behind my back, not quite touching me, and led me to the glass doors of the exit. I waved sheepishly at my friends, hoping to convey that they didn't need to worry anymore. Though, I knew Bella would have to answer plenty of questions if she did end up going to school today.

It was a huge relief to get into the cruiser and start heading home. 

We drove in silence. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I barely knew Charlie or Bella were there. We dropped Bella back off at school, she promised to bring my bag back with her and the truck, me telling her where I’d stashed the keys earlier this morning before this whole disaster. 

When we got to the house - Bella-less - Charlie finally spoke. 

"Um... you'll need to call Renée." He hung his head, guilty. 

I was appalled. "You told Mom!" 

"Sorry." 

I slammed the cruiser's door a little harder than necessary on my way out. 

My mom, of course, was in hysterics. I had to tell her that I felt fine and that I was alright at least thirty times before she would calm down enough to be able to even hold a decent conversation, let alone tell her what happened in the least amount of detail I could muster. She begged me to come home — forgetting the fact that home was empty at the moment — but her pleas were easier to resist than I would have thought. I was settling well with all things considered, though not perfectly. Bella was too. I was also inexplicably consumed by the mystery Edward presented. And more than a little obsessed with Edward himself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Fucking, glorious immortal vampire beauties.

After a light dinner that Bella made once she got home, I decided I might as well go to bed early. I was exhausted. Charlie continued to watch me anxiously all day long, and it was getting on my nerves. I stopped on my way to my room to grab three Tylenol from the bathroom. They did help, and, as the pain in my skull eased when the pills came into effect, I drifted to sleep. 

That was the first night I dreamed of Edward Cullen.


	5. Invitations

In my dream it was very dark, and what dim light there was seemed to be radiating from Edward's skin. I couldn't see his face, his features, just his back as he walked away from me, leaving me in the blackness. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn't catch up to him; no matter how loud I called, he never turned. Troubled, I woke in the middle of the night. I tossed and turned for what seemed like an eternity before I got up. 

Looking at the clock I knew that it was barely three in the morning and I wanted to groan out loud. I made my way to the kitchen, making myself a simple hot chocolate. I sat on the laz-e boy, my legs tucked up under me as I sipped the warm drink. I climbed the stairs after I put the cup in the sink, peeking into Bella’s room. Her bedside lamp still illuminates the small room. She was curled up, her smartphone in her hand, probably reading an online manga or a fanfiction. 

I smirked, seeing that. 

“I see your insomniatic tendencies haven’t gotten better with reincarnation” I teased. She looked up, her eyes widened in surprise for only a minute before she rolled her eyes at me. 

“Like you're any better,” She gave me a once over, noticing my housecoat and slippers. “Can’t sleep? How’s the head?”

“It’s fine. More like I’m having weird Edward fever dreams,” I grumbled as I went to sit down on her bed beside her. 

I can feel the bed shaking slightly with her attempt to stifle her chuckling. 

“Edward fever dreams, eh?” She finally managed out between her laughter. 

“Oh fuck off,” I groan, my head found perch in my hands. “It’s not faiiiiiir.” I whined into them. 

“Oh, for better or for worse right?” She asked with a sly smirk. She plugged her phone in and rolled onto her back, turning off her bedside lamp as she did so. She patted the spot beside her, inviting me to lay down. So I did. 

She grabbed my hand and we laid there silently for a few moments, my sister comforting me. 

“You think it really has something to do with that soulmate thing?” She mused aloud. 

“I don’t know, maybe?” 

“Do you think you’ll end up like OG Bella did?” 

“Likely, the way things are going.” 

“You can’t leave me behind okay?” Bella squeezed my hand tightly as she turned her face towards mine. Even in the dark I could see her chocolate brown eyes boring into my own. A promise. 

“I swear to god I will not leave you behind. We were together through the last life, we’re together through this one.”

“And we’ll be together through the next” She smiled at me before laying back down. 

“Don’t forget that we have to try blood slushies” I chuckled, reminiscing about an old and slightly immature conversation we had had when we had first realised where we were. 

“I’d never forget blood slushies.” 

We both fell silent then, just laying there for what seemed like a very long time. After that, Edward was in my dreams nearly every night, but always on the periphery, never within reach. 

The month that followed the accident was uneasy, tense, and, at first, all too embarrassing for me.

To my dismay, I found myself the center of attention all over again for the rest of that week. Unluckily, Bella wasn’t able to buffer this one out like she had with the new students in junior year, I was alone in the spotlight. With only one person to fawn over instead of two, I had my fair share of annoyance and embarrassment as people I didn’t even know kept trying to come talk to me. People who had been all too meek to approach me, but not my sister, before this had happened. 

Tyler Crowley was insufferably impossible, following me around, obsessed with ‘making amends’ to me somehow. I tried to convince him that what I wanted more than anything else was for him to forget all about it — especially since nothing had actually happened to me — but he remained insistent. Almost stakerishly so, much to my dismay. 

He followed me between classes and sat at our now-overcrowded lunch table. Mike was much less friendly toward him than he was to some of the other guys who had dained to approach me lately, in the aftermath of the accident, which made me worry that I'd gained yet another unwelcome fan.

Bella seemed to find all of this amusing, as she had also gone through a period of time like this with one ever so eager Eric, and she’d just barely evaded him in his pursuit. I really wish I could have used my sexuality as a shield like my sister did - though she still hadn’t outed herself yet to these unsuspecting students - but of course, I didn’t have that kind of defense. 

As I had expected, no one seemed concerned about Edward, though I explained over and over that he was the unsung hero — how he had pulled me out of the way and had nearly been crushed, too. I tried to be convincing. Honestly, anything to get even a little bit of the attention off of me about the accident. Even Tyler wasn’t being bothered like I was. Jessica, Mike, Eric, Laruen, Angela and everyone else always commented that they hadn't even seen Edward there though, until the van was pulled away.

I wondered to myself why no one else had seen him standing so far away, before he was suddenly, impossibly saving my life. With chagrin, I realized the probable cause — no one else was as aware of Edward as I always was. No one else watched him the way I did. How pitiful. And stupid. 

Edward was never surrounded by crowds of curious bystanders eager for his firsthand account. People avoided him as usual. The Cullens and the Hales sat at the same table as always, not eating, talking only among themselves. None of them, especially Edward, glanced my way anymore. Though, I unfortunately couldn’t stop myself from looking at him. 

When he sat next to me in class, as far from me as the table would allow, he pretended well to seem totally unaware of my presence. Only now and then, when his fists would suddenly ball up — skin stretched even whiter over the bones — could I tell that he wasn't quite as oblivious as he appeared.

Against my better judgement, I wanted very much to talk to him, and the day after the accident I tried. The last time I'd seen him, outside the ER, we'd both been so furious. I still was angry that he wouldn't trust me with the truth, even though I was keeping my part of the bargain flawlessly. But he had in fact saved my life, no matter how he'd done it. And, overnight, the heat of my anger faded into awed gratitude.

Even having known about the accident beforehand, I still wound up a part of it. I was grateful for his intervention, even if I was subtly insulted by him at every turn. 

He was already seated when I got to Biology, looking straight ahead. I sat down, half expecting him to turn toward me. He showed no visible sign that he even realized that I was there.

"Hello, Edward," I tried my best for a pleasant tone, to show him I was going to behave myself. As well as I, Katrina Swan, could behave myself.

He turned his head a fraction toward me without meeting my gaze, nodded once, and then looked the other way. Right, forget it. Fuck him, and me I guess. 

And that was the last contact I'd had with him, though he was there, a foot away from me, every day. I watched him sometimes, unable to stop myself— from a distance, though, in the cafeteria or parking lot. I watched as his golden eyes grew perceptibly darker day by day. But in class I gave no more notice that he existed than he showed toward me. I was miserable. And the dreams continued, unfortunately.

Bella found my problems hilarious of course, and would not stop cackling at me at every opportunity. Mike also seemed to be quite pleased with the obvious coldness between me and my lab partner. I could see that he’d been worried Edward’s daring rescue might have impressed me, and he was very obviously relieved that it seemed to have the opposite effect. He grew more and more confident, even going as far as to sit on the edge of my table before Biology class started, also ignoring Edward as completely as he ignored us.

Twice during that month Bella and I left school early on a friday and flew down to Phoenix for soccer games with my team. Flying back late Sunday night. I was extremely lucky that my coach let me stay on the team for the rest of the season, especially seeing as it was almost over. I was even lucky enough to be able to split my old position during the games, making the travelling worth it. I also really enjoyed the hard practices I participated in when I went down, helping clear my head even just for a few days. 

Bella and I stayed at our friend Holly’s and her girlfriend - Holly’s older sister by one year - house while we were in Phoenix. Amanda and Noah both also ended up staying over, making it a reunion as well as a fun friends sleepover. I had missed them desperately and even though Bella and I had a few people we could talk to in Forks, they just weren’t friends like these guys were. 

Soon enough, the snow washed away for good after that one dangerously icy day. Mike was disappointed he'd never gotten to stage his snowball fight, but pleased that the beach trip would soon be possible. The rain continued heavily, though, and the weeks passed.

Jessica made me aware of another event looming on the horizon — she called the first Tuesday of March to ask my permission to invite Mike to the girls' choice spring dance in two weeks.

"Are you sure you don't mind… you weren't planning to ask him?" she persisted when I told her I didn't mind in the least.

"No, Jess, I'm not going," I assured her. Bella and I had so many other more interesting things we’d rather do than going to a high school dance. We wouldn’t be missing much. 

"It will be really fun." Her attempt to convince me was half hearted at best. I suspected that Jessica enjoyed my inexplicable popularity more than my actual company.

"You have fun with Mike," I encouraged.

The next day, I was surprised that Jessica wasn't her usual gushing self in Trig and Spanish. She was quite silent with me - though she spoke to Bella a little bit - as she walked with us between classes, and I was afraid to ask her why. If Mike had turned her down, I was the last person she would want to tell. That would also explain the difference in treatment between my twin and I. Bella wasn’t a threat to her and Mike, on the other hand, I was, in her mind. 

My fears were strengthened during lunch when Jessica sat as far from Mike as possible, chatting animatedly with Lauren and Bella. Mike was unusually quiet.

Mike was still quiet as he walked me to class, the uncomfortable look on his face a bad sign. But he didn't broach the subject until I was in my seat and he was perched on my desk. As always, I was electrically aware of Edward sitting close enough to touch, as distant as if he were merely an invention of my imagination.

"So," Mike said, looking at the floor, "Jessica asked me to the spring dance."

"That's great." I made my voice bright and enthusiastic, something very not my style. But I needed him to know that I wanted him to give up on me. "You'll have a lot of fun with Jessica."

"Well…" He floundered as he examined my smile, clearly not happy with my response. "I told her I had to think about it."

"Why would you do that?" I let disapproval colour my tone, though I was relieved he hadn't given her an absolute no. This would at least make it easier for Jessica to not hate me after this chat. 

His face was bright red as he looked down again. 

"I was wondering if… well, if you might be planning to ask me." I just wanted to bang my head on the table, I didn’t realise trying to befriend him had given him such a wrong idea. I saw from the corner of my eye, Edward’s head tilting reflexively in my direction. I wanted to smirk at that, but realised that it was probably a very bad idea to do so. 

"Mike, I think you should tell her yes," I said.

"Did you already ask someone?" Did Edward notice how Mike's eyes flickered in his direction? Probably. 

"No," I assured him. "I'm not going to the dance at all."

"Why not?" Mike demanded.

I tried my hardest to not roll my eyes. I hoped that my efforts would make Bella proud. I wished that I had a game down in Phoenix to use as an excuse to run away for that specific weekend. So, I decided to make my own plans, Bella probably wouldn’t mind either, having an excuse to give her own admirers as opposed to telling this small town of her sexuality. 

"Bella and I are going to Seattle that Saturday," I explained. I knew that we would probably just hang out at home with just the two of us, but maybe if we actually decided to, we could leave town for the weekend. 

"Can't you go some other weekend?"

"Sorry, no," I said. "So you shouldn't make Jess wait any longer — it's rude."

"Yeah, you're right," he mumbled, and turned, dejected, to walk back to his seat. I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to push the nagging headache that was starting to grow in between my eyes. The nagging feeling that I was forgetting something important again began to grow. Mr. Banner began talking. I sighed and opened my eyes.

And Edward was staring at me curiously, that same, familiar edge of frustration even more distinct now in his onyx black eyes.

I stared back, surprised, expecting him to look quickly away. But instead he continued to gaze with probing intensity into my own eyes. There was no question of me looking away. I was enthralled in the depths of his eyes, my hands started to shake.

"Mr. Cullen?" the teacher called, seeking the answer to a question that I hadn't heard. I’m so glad he had called out to Edward instead of me, he at least could pick Banner’s brain for the answer. 

"The Krebs Cycle," Edward answered, seeming reluctant as he turned to look at Mr. Banner. The polite thing to do. I felt relieved though, being freed from his gaze. 

I looked down at my book as soon as his eyes released me, trying to find my place. Cowardly as ever, I shifted my hair over my right shoulder to hide my face. I couldn't believe the rush of emotion pulsing through me — just because he'd happened to really look at me for the first time in a half-dozen weeks. I couldn't allow him to have this level of influence over me. It was pathetic. It was stupid. 

More than pathetic and stupid, it was unhealthy.

I tried very hard not to be aware of him for the rest of the hour, and, since that was impossible, at least not to let him know that I was aware of him. When the bell rang at last, I turned my back to him to gather my things, expecting him to leave immediately as usual.

"Kat?" His voice shouldn't have been so familiar to me, as if I'd known the sound of it all my life rather than for just a few short weeks. Again, I felt the need to bang my head on the table. Maybe it would actually knock the few screws I seemed to have loose, back into place. 

I turned slowly, unwillingly. I didn't want to feel what I knew I would feel when I looked at his too-perfect face, back into those haunting onyx eyes. My expression was wary when I finally turned to him; his expression was unreadable. He didn't say anything.

"What? Are you speaking to me again?" I finally asked, my voice hard and unfriendly. I was momentarily glad that I still seemed to have control of that faculty of myself at least. 

His lips twitched, fighting a smile. "No, not really," he admitted.

I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly through my nose, aware that I was gritting my teeth. He waited.

"Then what do you want, Edward?" I asked, keeping my eyes closed; it was easier to talk to him coherently that way. When I couldn’t see him. 

"I'm sorry." He sounded sincere. "I'm being very rude, I know. But it's better this way, really." I opened my eyes. His face was very serious.

"I don't know what you mean," I said, my voice guarded. I couldn’t think of any reason why he was talking to me just to say that. Just leave me alone if you’re going to be a cryptic asshole. 

"It's better if we're not friends," he explained. "Trust me."

My eyes narrowed, my frustration surging. 

"It's too bad you didn't figure that out earlier," I hissed through my teeth. "You could have saved yourself all this regret." 

"Regret?" The word, and my tone, obviously caught him off guard. "Regret for what?"

"For not just letting that stupid van squish me." He was astonished. He stared at me in disbelief.

When he finally spoke, he almost sounded mad. "You think I regret saving your life?"

"I know you do," I snapped. He’d given me too much power and insight and now he was regretting it. And taking it out on me. 

"You don't know anything." He was definitely mad now too.

I turned my head sharply away from him, clenching my jaw against all the wild accusations I wanted to hurl at him. Most of all, the fact that I knew he was being a dick all because of his weird lust for my blood. But I didn’t do that, I couldn’t do that. So, I gathered my books together, then stood and walked to the door. I meant to sweep dramatically out of the room, but of course in the heat of the moment I caught the toe of my boot on the door jamb and dropped my books. 

I stood there for a moment, thinking about leaving them. Of course, my luck would have me do something as stupid as this. Then I sighed and bent to pick them up. He was there; he'd already stacked them into a pile. He handed them to me, his face hard.

"Thank you," I said icily. His eyes narrowed.

"You're welcome," he retorted.

I straightened up swiftly, turned away from him again, and stalked off to Gym without looking back.

Gym was interesting. We'd moved on to basketball. I was always on the shorter side growing up and had never really gotten into the sport; though, I was never terribly bad at team sports. I never quite managed to get the ball in the hoop, but I was good at ducking around the other team with the ball. And the sport was a welcome relief from my overwhelming thoughts of Edward Cullen. 

I almost ran to the truck when gym finished; there were just so many people I wanted to avoid today. I hoped desperately that Bella would be quick about leaving. Luckily the truck had suffered only minimal damage in the accident. We'd had to replace the taillights, and if it’d had a real paint job, we would have touched that up. Tyler 's parents had to sell their van for parts.

I almost had a stroke when I rounded the corner and saw a tall, dark figure leaning against the side of our truck. Then I realized it was just Eric. I started walking again.

"Hey, Eric," I called. He flinched a little when he looked up and realised it was me. We still hadn’t gotten on good terms yet, him being wary of me and me not enjoying witnessing his awful flirting with my twin sister. 

"Hi, Kat." He mumbled at me, looking down and shuffling his feet. 

"What's up?" I asked as I was unlocking the drivers door. I wasn't paying attention to the uncomfortable edge in his voice, he always seemed to feel that way in my presence, though god only knows why.

“I’m, uh…” He started, stuttering on his words. I glanced back at him after throwing my bag into the cab, his face was bright red, embarrassment almost palpable in the air. 

“Bella,” He said, “I’m waiting for Bella.”

“Right, well…” I stopped, looking at his still shuffling form. “She’ll be here soon I guess,” I shrugged my shoulders before climbing into the cab of the truck. I closed the door and he just looked at me again before walking around to the other side. Waiting for my sister. 

I reach into my bag and fumble for my phone, quickly texting Bella that Eric was waiting to ambush her by our truck. I also messaged her about my lie to Mike to get out of going to the dance. 

_ Oh thank god _ , was the response I got from her. I almost laughed at her lack of reaction to her future ambush. 

“Hey Eric,” I heard Bella’s cheery voice only a few minutes later. I tried not to look out the side window to see the awkward boy flinching as my twin came into view. 

“Uh, Hi Bella,” I heard him say almost bashfully and I could feel the laughter bubbling up my throat for the poor, pitiful boy. 

“Sup?” She asked, opening the door of the truck, making it even harder for me to ignore their interaction. 

"Uh, I was just wondering… if you would go to the spring dance with me? " His voice broke on the last word.

"I thought it was girls' choice," She said, the most undiplomatic she’d been since we got here. 

"Well, yeah," he admitted, sheepishly.

She seemed to have recovered her composure and tried to smile at him. "Thank you for asking me, but I'm going to be in Seattle that day."

"Oh," he said. "Well, maybe next time."

"Sure," She agreed reflexively, and then seemed to bite her lip when she realized what she may have just agreed to.

He nodded and slouched off, back toward the school. I could not hold back my laughter anymore and I started to chuckle as Bella got into her seat. 

“Oh my god!” She huffed out and I lost it, howling. 

“God, I need to make you a ‘no boobs, no pussy, no business’ shirt” I breathed out through my laughter. 

“Oh, no no no. That’s just awful.” She slapped my arm hard, trying to reign in my weezing. “At least let my shirt have a little more tact and class!” She cried and I howled all over again. 

“At least it wasn’t me, that would have been so awkward!” I laughed again, breathing heavily to try and get myself into any state of mind to drive. I was glad for the reprieve from my earlier frustration.

I breathed a few more times and then I revved the engine deafeningly and reversed out into the aisle, still chuckling every few breaths I took. Suddenly there was a shiny Volvo cutting me off. My eyebrows raised in wonder and confusion before I looked at my sister. Edward was stopped there in his car — to wait for his family; I could see the four of them walking this way, but still by the cafeteria. 

“Whaaa?” I questioned out loud, getting angry all over again at the stupid, beautiful vampire. What the hell was he doing? I briefly considered taking out the rear of his shiny car, but there were too many witnesses. 

Bella tapped my shoulder then, and pointed out the back window. I looked in my rearview mirror. A line was beginning to form. Directly behind me, Tyler Crowley was in his recently acquired used Sentra, waving. I just shook my head, I was too aggravated to acknowledge him. I sighed heavily, not wanting to sit here waiting for whatever it was that this beautiful yet aggravating vampire wanted with me. 

While I was sitting there, looking everywhere but at the car in front of me, I heard a knock on the passenger side window. I looked over; it was Tyler. I glanced back in my rearview mirror, confused.His car was still running, the door left open. I gave Bella a side glance before she shrugged and reached down, trying to crank the window down to allow him to speak. It was stiff and only got about halfway down before it just gave up.

"I'm sorry, Tyler, I'm stuck behind Cullen." I was annoyed — obviously the holdup wasn't my fault. 

"Oh, I know — I just wanted to ask you something while we're trapped here." He grinned. “Hey Bella,” He said smoothly before looking back at me. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion before it dawned on me.

This could not be happening.

"Will you ask me to the spring dance?" he continued bluntly and my eyes widened. What the heck? I took one look at Bella’s shocked face before looking back at Tyler. His smug smile annoyed me, almost more than the asshole vampire in front of me blocking me from avoiding this travesty. 

"We’re not going to be in town, Tyler." My voice sounded sharp when it came out. But this time, Bella didn’t even look at me, warning like she normally would have. She just nodded along to what I was saying. I had to remember it wasn't his fault that Mike and Edward had already used up my quota of patience for the day. Not that I had a high quota to start with.

"Yeah, Mike said that," he admitted.

"Then why —"

He shrugged. "I was hoping you were just letting him down easy."

Okay, it was completely his fault and I was in an internal war as to whether or not I should bash his head in or my own. 

"Sorry,Tyler," I said, not even bothering to hide my irritation in my voice. "I really am going out of town."

"That's cool. We still have prom."

And before I could respond to his ludicrous statement, he was walking back to his car. I could feel the shock on my face. I looked forward, watching as Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper all slid into the Volvo. In his rearview mirror, Edward's eyes were on me. He was unquestionably shaking with laughter, most definitely having heard every word Tyler had said. My foot itched toward the gas pedal… one little bump wouldn't hurt any of them, they were vampires for fucks sake, just that glossy silver paint job. I revved the engine before Bella could stop me. 

But they were all in, and Edward was speeding away. 

I wanted to shriek out of irritation. I drove home slowly, carefully, muttering to myself the whole way. Bella just kept giving me side glances, probably worried about my sanity at this point. I would be too if not for my heightened blood pressure. 

When we got home, I immediately changed and decided to go for a good hard run before making dinner. I needed to breathe in the fresh air, I needed to feel the screaming of my muscles as they worked, and I needed to not want to punch everything in sight before my father got home and questioned my anger. 

Once that was done, I took a quick shower before starting on dinner. I decided to make chicken enchiladas. It was a long process, and it would keep me busy. I decided to fish mine and Bella’s google home out of my suitcase that was yet to be fully unpacked, and plug it in, in the kitchen. I blasted my angriest pop punk playlist, hoping the music would help me calm down more, or at least keep my mind as well as my hands occupied. 

While I was simmering the onions and chilies, my cell phone rang. I was almost afraid to answer it, but it might be Charlie or my mom.

It was neither though. Jessica was calling, and she was jubilant; Mike had caught her after school to accept her invitation. I celebrated with her briefly while I stirred the frying pan. She had to go, she wanted to call Angela and Lauren to tell them. I suggested — with casual innocence — that maybe Angela, the shy girl who had Biology with me, could ask Eric. And Lauren, the girl who had afternoon classes with Bella and had usually ignored me at the lunch table, could ask Tyler; I'd heard he was still available. Jess thought that was a great idea. Now that she was sure of Mike, she actually sounded sincere when she said she wished Bella and I would go to the dance. 

Bella entered the kitchen at that moment and after hearing the conversation over speakerphone she just shook her head. I gave Jessica my Seattle excuse.

After I hung up, I tried to concentrate on dinner — dicing the chicken especially; I didn't want to take another trip to the emergency room. No need to visit Dr. Cullen too often. But my head was spinning, with thoughts of Edward and his vampire family. The angry music obviously hadn’t helped my mind from wandering. I analyzed the words he had said to me after Biology and I sighed heavily. 

Well, that was fine. I could leave him alone. I would leave him alone. Bella and I would get through our self-imposed sentence here in Forks, and then hopefully some school with a good varsity soccer program in the Southwest, would offer me a scholarship. I focused my thoughts on sunny beaches and palm trees as I finished the enchiladas and put them in the oven.

“You okay Kat?” Bella asked me, and I spun around startled for a minute before I just chuckled. I was being jumpy for no reason. 

“No, Edward is causing me grief and I just can’t seem to stop worrying about it.”

“Oh there there hun,” Bella said, patting my head as she might a dog looking for affection. I glared at her a bit, but resigned myself to the comfort. 

“This soulmate thing is going to drive me to insanity, I swear it” I muttered quietly and Bella only laughed at that. We both heard the cruiser pull into the driveway and looked toward the door to greet our father. 

Charlie seemed suspicious when he came home and smelled the green peppers. I couldn't blame him — the closest edible Mexican food was probably in southern California. And he didn’t seem to be an imaginative cook. But he was a cop, even if just a small-town cop, so he was brave enough to take the first bite. He seemed to like it.

It was fun to watch as he slowly began trusting Bella and I in the kitchen.

“So,” He started as we were finishing up our dinner. I whipped my head up in surprise, he usually wasn’t the first one to break our table silence. Usually it was Bella and I chatting lightly while he just watched on. 

"Dad?" I asked when he didn’t continue.

“I heard that there was a dance a week from Saturday…” He trailed off and I nearly groaned out loud. Of course he had heard about the dance at the high school in this small town. 

“Oh god dad, really?” I asked him, my eyes widening in horror.

“I’d rather stab myself in the foot,” Bella muttered beside me and I couldn’t stop the snort that sounded at her statement. Dad looked between the two of us skeptically. 

“What? What’s wrong with the dance?” He asked us. 

“I - We - don’t dance dad. I might be sporty but that doesn’t mean I want to be packed in a gym with sweaty teenagers pretending to have fun.” I told him, shaking my head. Bella was nodding along with me enthusiastically. 

He just rolled his eyes, but he dropped the subject for now. Which I was incredibly thankful for. 

The next morning, when we pulled into the parking lot, I deliberately parked as far as possible from the silver Volvo. I didn't want to put myself in the path of too much temptation and end up owing him a new car. Or having to visit the ER for a broken hand. 

Bella laughed at my attempts to avoid the vampire before she hopped out of the cab and grabbed her bag. 

“I have to ask Lauren a quick question, I’ll meet you in English.” She told me before closing the door and walking away. 

Getting out of the cab myself, I fumbled with my keys and they fell into a puddle at my feet. I sighed and as I bent to get them, a white hand flashed out and grabbed them before I could. I jerked upright. Edward Cullen was right next to me, leaning casually against my truck.

"Why do you do that?" I asked in amazed irritation. How had I not noticed him appearing beside me like that?

"Do what?" He held my keys out as he spoke. As I reached for them, he dropped them right into my palm.

"Appear out of thin air."

"Kat, it's not my fault if you are exceptionally unobservant." His voice was quiet as usual — velvet, muted, intoxicating. 

I breathed and scowled at his perfect face. His eyes were light again today, a deep, golden honey color instead of the dark onyx they had been yesterday. Well fed. Then I had to look down, to reassemble my now-tangled thoughts.

"Why the traffic jam last night?" I demanded, still looking away. "I thought you were supposed to be pretending I don't exist, not irritating me to death." Or forcing other boys towards my wrath. Not that he knew much of my wrath, he couldn’t exactly read my mind.

"That was for Tyler 's sake, not mine. I had to give him his chance." He snickered.

"You…" I gasped. I couldn't think of a bad enough word. And I tried, my swear vocabulary was quite large and creative. But I couldn’t think of anything bad enough at that moment to call him. It felt like the heat of my anger should physically burn him, but he only seemed more amused by my expression.

"And I'm not pretending you don't exist," he continued.

"Oh right, so you  _ are _ trying to irritate me to death?” I snark at him before smirking a little, hoping to press a few of his own buttons. “Since Tyler's van didn't do the job?" I added then. 

Anger flashed in his tawny eyes. His lips pressed into a hard line, all signs of humor gone. Good, maybe he could understand my irritation now. 

"Kat, you are utterly absurd," he said, his low voice cold. 

“What’s it to you?” I fumed. 

My palms tingled — I wanted so badly to hit something again. He was lucky that I knew what the consequences of that action would be, at least against him. I held back a growl as I turned my back on him and started to walk away.

"Wait," he called after me. I kept walking, sloshing angrily through the rain. But he was next to me, easily keeping pace. Stupid, glorious vampire. 

"I'm sorry, that was rude," he said as we walked. I ignored him. "I'm not saying it isn't true," he continued, "but it was rude to say it, anyway."

"Why won't you leave me alone?" I grumbled. That’s what you wanted just yesterday. Couldn’t we just ignore each other for the next year and a half and avoid any of the rest of the god awful story I seemed to be living.

"I wanted to ask you something, but you sidetracked me," he chuckled. He seemed to have recovered his good humor.

"Do you have a multiple personality disorder?" I retorted immediately and severely.

"You're doing it again."

I sighed, pressing my fingers to the bridge of my nose and breathing carefully a few times. Calm down Katrina, don’t hit this solid and beautiful and aggravating vampire. "Fine then. What do you want to ask?"

"I was wondering if, a week from Saturday — you know, the day of the spring dance —"

"Are you trying to be funny ?" I interrupted him, wheeling toward him. My face got drenched as I looked up at his expression. He had to know that I’d turned down my two ‘suitors’ yesterday and heard Bella giving the same response to her own seeing as he was only a few cars down.

His eyes were wickedly amused. God, of course he knew what he was doing. "Will you please allow me to finish?"

I bit my lip roughly and clasped my hands together, interlocking my fingers, so I couldn't do anything rash. Bella would scold me heavily if I did in any case.

"I heard you say you were going to Seattle that day, and I was wondering if you, and Bella, wanted a ride." 

That was unexpected. 

"What?" I wasn't sure what he was getting at.

"Do you want a ride to Seattle ?"

"With who?" I asked, mystified.

"Myself, obviously." He enunciated every syllable, as if he were talking to someone mentally handicapped. That made my temper flare a little again, but I was still too stunned to really use it. 

"Why?"

"Well, I was planning to go to Seattle in the next few weeks, and, to be honest, I'm not sure if your truck can make it."

"My truck works just fine, thank you very much for your concern." I started to walk again, but I was too surprised to maintain the same level of anger.

"But can your truck make it there on one tank of gas?" He matched my pace again.

"I don't see how that is any of your business." Stupid, shiny, vampiric Volvo owner.

"The wasting of finite resources is everyone's business."

"Honestly, Edward." I felt a thrill go through me as I said his name out loud, and I absolutely hated it. "I can't keep up with you. I thought you didn't want to be my friend."

"I said it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be."

"Oh, thanks, now that's all cleared up." Heavy sarcasm ran through every word of my sentence. I suddenly realized I had stopped walking again.

We were under the shelter of the cafeteria roof now, so I could more easily look at his face. Which certainly didn't help my clarity of thought.

"It would be more…prudent for you not to be my friend," he explained. "But I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Kat."

His eyes were gloriously intense as he uttered that last sentence, his voice smoldering. I couldn't remember how to breathe.

"Will you go with me to Seattle ?" he asked, still intense.

I couldn't speak yet, so I just nodded. Forgetting that Seattle had just been an excuse and that we probably weren’t actually going to be going there. 

He smiled briefly, and then his face became serious.

"You really should stay away from me," he warned. "I'll see you in class."

He turned abruptly and walked back the way we'd come.


	6. Blood Type

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done! I hope you all are enjoying it!

I made my way to English in a daze. I didn't even realize when I first walked in, that class had already started.

"Thank you for joining us, Miss Swan," Mr. Mason said in a disparaging tone. I flushed and hurried to my seat. Bella was smirking at me as I rushed past her to my seat right behind her own. Her face looked flushed, more so than it had earlier, but I ignored it. She’d tell me if she wasn’t feeling well, so I simply rolled my eyes in her direction before I passed and sat. It’s not like Mr. Mason was going to be covering anything new for either of us anyway. 

Throughout the class though, I had noticed Bella getting paler. I worried a little, but figured she wouldn’t like me mothering her too much. If she was really feeling bad, she’d tell me. 

It wasn't until class ended that I realized Mike wasn't sitting in his usual seat next to me. I was too preoccupied on Edward’s dramatic attitude change, and Bella’s ever changing colouring. I just shook my head to forget it when Mike met Bella and me at the door as usual, so I figured I wasn't totally unforgiven for rejecting him. He seemed to become more himself as we walked, gaining enthusiasm as he talked about the weather report for this weekend. The rain was supposed to take a minor break, and so maybe his beach trip would be possible. I tried to sound eager, to make up for disappointing him yesterday. It was hard; rain or no rain, it would still only be in the high forties, if we were lucky.

I also remembered I couldn’t get too chilled or exhausted at the beach because my team had a travel game that Sunday in Seattle and would be travelling there Saturday night and meeting up with my friends and the rest of the team who were renting rooms in the same hotel as us. 

The morning seemed to pass in a blur. It was difficult to believe that I hadn't just imagined what Edward had said, and the way his eyes had looked. Maybe it was just a very convincing dream that I'd confused with reality. That seemed more probable than the idea that I really appealed to him on any level other than the smell of my blood. And that wasn’t a particularly good level to appeal to him on.

Bella just kept getting paler and paler as the morning drew on, but whenever I asked if she was alright she would simply wave me away. I wanted to hit her for just suffering in silence, but I figured hitting the sick wasn’t the best way to go about things. 

Bella ended up asking me to take her home part way through Spanish. She looked translucently pale and in pain. Mrs Goff let us out early so that I could take my twin home. We were almost more proficient in the language than she was anyways, thus she probably figured that we would be fine missing half a class. 

Bella was complaining about feeling nauseous and I asked her if she wanted me to stay at home with her, I could always call the school and tell them that Bella was sick and I was going to stay home. 

Bella said no though, wanting me to go back.

“I’m not feeling too bad. I’m probably just going to sleep until you get home anyways. There’s no point in you sticking around.” I nodded, but I felt my stomach doing flips. 

“If you’re sure…” I muttered, trailing off. 

I knew that if I was getting some of the runoff that Bella wasn’t doing as well as she was pretending to, but I didn’t want to force the issue. So I instead forced her to take some graval and told her I would be home as soon as school let out. 

“Go, go, have fun.” 

I made it back just before classes let out. So I stopped in briefly at the front office to tell Mrs. Cope that I had taken Bella home because she wasn’t feeling well and that she would need to be excused from her afternoon classes. 

I met with Jessica, Lauren, and Angela in front of the cafeteria. 

“Hey, how’s Bella doing?” Lauren asked me, speaking to me properly for the first time, as I could recall. She had probably been told about Bella and I leaving spanish to take Bella home from Jessica.

“She’s fine, took some drugs and went to sleep as soon as we got home. She’ll probably be better tomorrow.” I smiled, hoping that they all took my word for it. My stomach was wrapping itself in knots and I was excessively worried about my twin. 

We had what some of our doctors called ‘twin telepathy’. Not that we could communicate with each other with actual telepathy, but when one of us was hurt or in emotional distress the other could feel it, even in separate rooms or when I was at practice and Bella was at home. When we were younger we used to get sick at the same time all the time just because of it.

And thus I was restless as we entered the cafeteria. And that was even before I remembered the whole Edward situation. I distracted myself from thinking about my twin by thinking about the handsome yet aggravating vampire boy instead. I became impatient and I wanted to see his face, to see if he'd gone back to the cold, indifferent person I'd known for the last several weeks. Or if, by some miracle, I'd really heard what I thought I'd heard this morning. Jessica babbled on and on about her dance plans — Lauren and Angela had asked the other boys and they were all going together — completely unaware of my inattention.

Disappointment flooded through me as my eyes unerringly focused on his table, as stupid and pathetic as I knew it was. The other four were there, but he was absent. Had he gone home as well? I followed the still-babbling Jessica through the line, crushed. I'd lost what little appetite I had had — I bought nothing but a bottle of lemonade. I felt my stomach crumpling up in my disappointment. I just wanted to go sit down and sulk like a child.

"Edward Cullen is staring at you again," Jessica said, finally breaking through my distraction with his name. "I wonder why he's sitting alone today."

My head snapped up immediately. I followed Jessica’s gaze to see Edward, smiling crookedly, staring at me from an empty table, across the cafeteria from where he usually sat. Once he'd caught my eye, he raised one hand and motioned with his index finger for me to join him. As I stared in disbelief, he winked.

"Does he mean you?" Jessica asked with insulting astonishment in her voice.

"Maybe he needs help with his Biology homework," I muttered for her benefit. I couldn’t decide if what I was feeling was nervousness or excitement at this development. God I was pathetic. 

"Um, I'd better go see what he wants." I said before making my way over to his new table. 

I could feel Jessica and the others staring after me as I walked away.

When I reached his table, I stood behind the chair across from him, unsure. Should I really sit down with this aggravatingly perfect vampire?

"I saw that you were missing your twin,” His eyes swept over me and then over to my group of friends, before returning back to me again. “So, why don't you sit with me today?" he asked, smiling.

I sat down automatically, watching him with caution. He was still smiling. It was hard to believe that someone so beautiful could be real. I was afraid that he might disappear in a sudden puff of smoke, and I would wake up.

Of course, that’s how I felt about the memories of my past life too, so I wasn’t holding my breath for that to actually happen anytime soon. 

He seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

"This is different," I finally managed.

"Well…" He paused, and then the rest of the words followed in a rush. "I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly."

I waited for him to say something that made sense. My mind reeled, wondering what the fuck had happened to make him change his tune overnight. I worried for a time, desperately trying to remember some detail from the book that would help me solve this puzzle. What had happened between yesterday and this morning for him to start talking to me. The seconds ticked by. 

"You know I don't have any idea what you mean," I sighed, eventually pointing it out. Giving up on trying to solve Edwards' cryptic words. I knew his deepest secrets by pure accident right now, I didn’t need to try and read his mind too.

"I know." He smiled again, and then he changed the subject. "I think your friends are angry with me for stealing you."

"They'll survive." I could feel their stares boring into my back. They were easier to ignore than I would have thought.

"I may not give you back, though," he said with a wicked glint in his eyes. I gulped.

He laughed. "You look worried."

"No," I said, but, ridiculously, my voice broke. Of course I’d be a little worried hearing that phrase from the mouth of a vampire. Not that he knew that I knew that he and his family were vampires. Not yet anyways. He’s not going to eat me, I chastised myself in my head. "Surprised, actually… what brought all this on?"

"I told you — I got tired of trying to stay away from you. So I'm giving up." He was still smiling, but his ocher eyes were serious. 

"Giving up?" I repeated in confusion.

"Yes — giving up trying to be good. I'm just going to do what I want now, and let the chips fall where they may." His smile faded as he explained, and a hard edge crept into his voice. I felt my breath hitch subtly at his words, and his heart rending expression. God did this vampire have to look so beautiful? I wanted to melt into his eyes and voice and never leave. 

"You lost me again." I finally mustered out, though he hadn’t really lost me this time. From what I knew he had decided to try and be close to me now, no matter what my blood scent did to him. Something exceedingly dangerous for the both of us, me more so than him - considering in any form of altercation he could simply walk away. 

The breathtaking crooked smile reappeared.

"I always say too much when I'm talking to you — that's one of the problems." I was so glad that I had yet to be in the same predicament. I blurted out a lot yes, but I had yet to spill my deepest secrets to him. I was glad for that much at least.

"Don't worry,” I waved my hand dismissively, I wanted to make him feel safe to keep slipping up. Give me more to pretend to go off of so I wasn’t floundering when I confronted him about his and his family’s vampirism. Or anything else really. “I don't understand any of it," I said wryly. Trying my hand at an innocent smile.

"I'm counting on that."

"So, in plain English, are we friends now?" I tried to ask, wondering if I could play friends with a vampire for a while. 

"Friends…" he mused, dubious.

"Or not," I wondered what he wanted then, if it wasn’t friends. He couldn’t be in love with me yet, could he? Was his obsession this early on?

Then he grinned. "Well, we can try, I suppose. But I'm warning you now that I'm not a good friend for you." Behind his smile, the warning was real. Of course the warning was real. He wanted my blood, very very much. 

"You say that a lot," I tried to be casual. I pointed my finger at him as I said it.

"Yes, because you're not listening to me. I'm still waiting for you to believe it. If you're smart, you'll avoid me." God, I might not be very smart then Edward. 

"I think you've made your opinion on the subject of my intellect clear, too." My eyes narrowed. He didn’t need to constantly point out how not smart he thought I was. 

His smile seemed to be apologetic.

"So, as long as I'm being… not smart, we'll try to be friends?" I struggled to sum up the confusing exchange.

"That sounds about right."

I looked down at my hands wrapped around the lemonade bottle, not sure what to do now. I could feel my stomach twisting into knots. I couldn’t tell; however, if they were from my exchange with Edward or my sisters feelings right now. 

"What are you thinking?" he asked curiously, pulling me from my reverie. What should I even say? How to tell you that I already know you’re a vampire and that you’re probably obsessed with me to an almost disturbing degree?

"I'm trying to figure out what you are." I decided to go for a basic avoidance strategy. He doesn’t need to know anything about that yet. I never wanted to admit my memories from my previous life either. I needed to wait until Saturday, then I would have the confrontational materials. If I could get them out of Jacob like OG Bella had in the books, that is. 

His jaw tightened, but he kept his smile in place with some obvious effort.

"Are you having any luck with that?" he asked in an offhand tone. Though his steely gaze gave him away. He was worried. 

I wanted to laugh about that, considering I already knew. "Not too much," I admitted in the same offhand tone he used.

He chuckled. "What are your theories?"

I almost laughed. Vampire, sweetheart. 

There was no way I was going to own up to that though.

"Won't you tell me?" he asked, tilting his head to one side with a shockingly tempting smile.

I shook my head. What could I even say? "Too embarrassing."

"That's really frustrating, you know," he complained. Oh, yes, poor mind reading vampire who cannot read my mind. 

"No," I disagreed quickly, my eyes narrowing. Verbal debates were always my forte. "I can't imagine why that would be frustrating at all — just because someone refuses to tell you what they're thinking, even if all the while they're making cryptic little remarks specifically designed to keep you up at night wondering what they could possibly mean… now, why would that be frustrating?"

He grimaced, but I was on a roll. Bella couldn’t even stop me when I really got into something or someone like this. 

"Or better," I continued, the pent-up annoyance flowing freely now, my finger waving at him in my excitement. Curse you hand talking, "say that person also did a wide range of bizarre things — from saving your life under near impossible circumstances one day to treating you like a pariah the next, and he never explained any of that, either, even after he promised. That, also, would be very non-frustrating."

"You've got a bit of a temper, don't you?"

"No shit sherlock,” I muttered under my breath, though I knew he had heard me. So I looked up at him then, “I don't like double standards."

We stared at each other, unsmiling.

He glanced over my shoulder, and then, unexpectedly, he snickered.

"What?"

"Your boyfriend seems to think I'm being unpleasant to you — he's debating whether or not to come break up our fight." He snickered again.

"I don't know who you're talking about," I said frostily. "But I'm sure you're wrong, anyway."

"I'm not. I told you, most people are easy to read." Duh, you just read their minds. 

"Except me, of course." And what about Bella?

"Yes. Except for you." His mood shifted suddenly; his eyes turned brooding. "I wonder why that is."

I had to look away from the intensity of his stare. I really hoped he can’t read Bella’s thoughts either, or else we’re fucked. I concentrated on unscrewing the lid of my lemonade. I took a swig, staring at the table without seeing it.

"Aren't you hungry?" he asked, distracted. I looked up at him startled. 

"No." I didn't feel like mentioning that my stomach was twisting itself into knots and was already full — of butterflies. "You?" I looked at the empty table in front of him, holding back a smirk.

"No, I'm not hungry." He said as he looked like he was enjoying his private joke. As I watched him smirk I thought of something. 

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked after a second of hesitation.

He was suddenly wary. "That depends on what you want."

"It's not much," I assured him.

He waited, guarded but curious.

"I just wondered… if you could warn me beforehand the next time you decide to ignore me for my own good. Just so I'm prepared." I looked at the lemonade bottle as I spoke, tracing the circle of the opening with my pinkie finger. Nervous. I could feel my stomach clamping up in anticipation and I hated it. I was pushing way beyond pathetic at this point. 

"That sounds fair." He was pressing his lips together to keep from laughing when I looked up. God. 

"Thanks."

"Then can I have one answer in return?" he demanded.

"One."

"Tell me one theory."

Whoops. "Not that one." Quick, think of something, brain. 

"You didn't qualify, you just promised one answer," he reminded me.

"And you've broken promises yourself," I reminded him back. Avoiding.

"Just one theory — I won't laugh."

"Yes, you will." I retorted, desperate for him to drop it. What could I even say?

He looked down, and then glanced up at me through his long black lashes, his eyes scorching.

"Please?" he breathed, leaning toward me.

I blinked, my mind going blank. Holy crow, how did he  _ do _ that?

"Er, what?" I asked, dazed. I couldn’t seem to tear myself away from his gaze. 

"Please tell me just one little theory." His eyes still smoldered at me.

"Um, well... bitten by a radioactive spider?" I wanted to sigh in relief when that came out of my mouth. Thank god for my comic book geekiness from this life and my last. Also thank god my brain didn’t totally fry in his gaze. 

"That's not very creative," he scoffed. Yeah it was a spur of the moment idea, I didn’t think too hard on it. Sue me. 

"I'm sorry, that's all I've got," I said, acting miffed. Glad that I could now avoid this topic again for a good length of time. 

"You're not even close," he teased.

"No spiders?" I gasped in false shock and he snickered. 

"Nope."

"And no radioactivity?"

"None."

"Dang," I sighed.

"Kryptonite doesn't bother me, either," he chuckled.

"You're not supposed to laugh, remember?" Though I chuckled as well. 

He struggled to compose his face.

"I'll figure it out eventually," I warned him. Warned him that I already knew, and one day he would know that I did. 

"I wish you wouldn't try." He was serious again.

"Because… ?"

"What if I'm not a superhero? What if I'm the bad guy?" He smiled playfully, but his eyes were impenetrable.

I smirked at him a little bit. "I see."

"Do you?" His face was abruptly severe, as if he were afraid that he'd accidentally said too much. Oh sweet summer child. 

"You're dangerous?" I guessed, pushing my smirk as far down my throat as it would go. I couldn’t slip up now. Just like he thought he couldn’t slip up either. 

He just looked at me, eyes full of some emotion I couldn't comprehend.

"But not bad," I whispered, finally serious. "I don't believe that you're bad." He definitely wasn’t bad. Someone who fought so hard to deny his own nature to protect me, an insufferable bitch at the best of times, could never be a bad person. 

"You're wrong." His voice was almost inaudible. He looked down, stealing my bottle lid and then spinning it on its side between his fingers. I stared at him, I wished very desperately that I could tell him he definitely wasn’t a monster. He may be a vampire, but that didn’t mean he was a monster. 

The silence lasted until I felt my stomach twist almost painfully. It knocked me back into the present and I noticed that the cafeteria was almost empty.

I jumped to my feet. "We're going to be late."

"I'm not going to class today," he said, twirling the lid so fast it was just a blur.

"Why not?" 

"It's healthy to ditch class now and then." He smiled up at me, but his eyes were still troubled. I couldn’t think of any reason why he’d want to skip a class, but I just shrugged. High school in a constant loop must be boring, I had only done it twice and I was already getting sick of it. So maybe skipping once in a while was healthy for the immortal vampire.

"Well, I'm going," I told him. 

He turned his attention back to his makeshift top. "I'll see you later, then."

I hesitated, torn between staying with Edward for a little bit longer or going to class, but then the first bell sent me hurrying out the door — with a last glance confirming that he hadn't moved a centimeter.

As I half-ran to class, my head was spinning faster than the bottle cap. I worried briefly about what that could mean, but ignored it and rushed through the puddles to get to the classroom.

I was lucky; Mr. Banner wasn't in the room yet when I arrived. I settled quickly into my seat, aware that both Mike and Angela were staring at me. Mike looked resentful; Angela looked surprised, and slightly awed.

Mr. Banner came into the room then, calling the class to order. He was juggling a few small cardboard boxes in his arms. He put them down on Mike's table, telling him to start passing them around the class. I felt another painful twist gripping my stomach and I grabbed it in confusion. 

"Okay, guys, I want you all to take one piece from each box," he said as he produced a pair of rubber gloves from the pocket of his lab jacket and pulled them on. "The first should be an indicator card," he went on, grabbing a white card with four squares marked on it and displaying it. "The second is a four-pronged applicator —" he held up something that looked like a nearly toothless hair pick "— and the third is a sterile micro-lancet." He held up a small piece of blue plastic and split it open. The barb was invisible from this distance. I tried to concentrate but my ears were beginning to ring, the pain in my stomach twisting. 

"I'll be coming around with a dropper of water to prepare your cards, so please don't start until I get to you." He began at Mike's table again, carefully putting one drop of water in each of the four squares. "Then I want you to carefully prick your finger with the lancet…" He grabbed Mike's hand and jabbed the spike into the tip of Mike's middle finger. Suddenly my stomach dropped, clammy moisture broke out across my forehead. Nausea twisted my stomach again. 

"Put a small drop of blood on each of the prongs." He demonstrated, squeezing Mike's finger till the blood flowed. I was barely watching and listening to Mr. Banner anymore, I swallowed convulsively, my stomach heaving. 

"And then apply it to the card," he finished, holding up the dripping red card for us to see. I closed my eyes, trying to hear through the deep ringing in my ears. What is wrong with me? I hadn’t even eaten anything at lunch. 

I grabbed for my bag, pulled out my cell phone rapidly, quickly texting Bella. 

_ Are you throwing up right now? _

I waited for a reply anxiously as the nauseous feeling began to crawl up my throat. 

"The Red Cross is having a blood drive in Port Angeles next weekend, so I thought you should all know your blood type." He sounded proud of himself. "Those of you who aren't eighteen yet will need a parent's permission — I have slips at my desk."

He continued through the room with his water drops. I put my cheek against the cool black tabletop and tried to hold on to my consciousness. All around me I could hear squeals, complaints, and giggles as my classmates skewered their fingers. I breathed slowly in and out through my mouth. At least I could write this one off as being queasy at the sight of blood. I don’t know what I would have done if it had been a normal class. I didn’t really want to have to explain the whole twin telepathy type thing.

I felt my phone vibrate in my hand as I heard someone approach me. 

"Kat, are you all right?" Mr. Banner asked. His voice was close to my head, and it sounded alarmed.

"I already know my blood type, Mr. Banner," I said in a weak voice. I was afraid to raise my head. Or open my mouth. Honestly, moving sounded like a bad idea.

"Are you feeling faint?"

"Yes, sir," I muttered, internally kicking myself for not ditching when I had the chance. I should have just stayed home with Bella. I should have just called the school. 

"Can someone take Kat to the nurse, please?" he called.

I didn't have to look up to know that it would be Mike who volunteered.

"Can you walk?" Mr. Banner asked.

"Yes," I whispered. I'll crawl if I have to. Just get me home.

Mike seemed eager as he put his arm around my waist and pulled my arm over his shoulder. I was barely of half a mind to grab my bag, my phone still clutched in my grip. I leaned against him heavily on the way out of the classroom.

Mike towed me slowly across campus. When we were around the edge of the cafeteria, out of sight of building four in case Mr. Banner was watching, I stopped.

"Just let me sit for a minute, please?" I begged him, my stomach twisting into knots again.

He helped me sit on the edge of the walkway.

I was still so dizzy. I took a glance at my phone and saw Bella’s affirmative answer. Then I slumped over on my side, putting my cheek against the freezing, damp cement of the sidewalk, closing my eyes. That seemed to help a little. Just please don’t throw up. 

"Wow, you're green, Kat," Mike said nervously. Of fucking course I was, I wanted to retort. But I avoided opening my mouth, I might have thrown up had I done that. 

"Kat?" a different voice called from the distance.

Fuck! No! Please let me be imagining that horribly familiar voice. Please. 

"What's wrong — is she hurt?" His voice was closer now, and he sounded upset. I wasn't imagining it. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, hoping to die. Or, at the very least, not to throw up.

Mike seemed stressed. "I think she's fainted. I don't know what happened, she didn't even stick her finger." Oh thank god Mike was spinning the story for me. I couldn’t bother mustering the brainpower to do it for myself. 

"Kat." Edward's voice was right beside me, relieved now. "Can you hear me?" 

Please don’t throw up. 

"No," I groaned. "Go away." I felt the knot twist again in my stomach. Bella what’s happening? 

He chuckled. Not that I was very amused, or amusing. 

"I was taking her to the nurse," Mike explained in a defensive tone, "but she wouldn't go any farther."

"I'll take her," Edward said. I could hear the smile still in his voice. "You can go back to class."

"No," Mike protested. "I'm supposed to do it."

Suddenly the sidewalk disappeared from beneath me. My eyes flew open in shock. My stomach reeled terrifyingly. Edward had scooped me up in his arms, as easily as if I weighed only ten pounds. Stupid vampire strength. 

"Put me down!" Please, please let me not vomit on him. He was walking before I was finished talking.

"Hey!" Mike called, already ten paces behind us.

Edward ignored him. "You look awful," he told me, grinning.

"Put me back on the sidewalk," I moaned. The rocking movement of his walk was not helping.

He held me away from his body, gingerly, supporting all my weight with just his arms. Showoff.

"So you faint at the sight of blood?" he asked. This seemed to entertain him.

I didn't answer. Of course, that wasn’t the reason. But I was not going to get into this explanation right now. I closed my eyes again and fought the nausea with all my strength, clamping my teeth and lips together tightly.

"And not even your own blood," he continued, enjoying himself.

I don't know how he opened the door while carrying me, but it was suddenly warm, so I knew we were inside.

"Oh my," I heard a female voice gasp.

"She fainted in Biology," Edward explained.

I opened my eyes. I was in the office, and Edward was striding past the front counter toward the nurse's door. Ms. Cope, the redheaded front office receptionist, ran ahead of him to hold it open.

The grandmotherly nurse looked up from a novel, astonished, as Edward swung me into the room and placed me gently on the crackly paper that covered the brown vinyl mattress on the one cot. Then he moved to stand against the wall as far across the narrow room as possible. His eyes were bright, excited.

"She's just a little faint," he reassured the startled nurse. "They're blood typing in Biology." My story was spinning itself so well it was almost scary. I didn’t even have to lift a finger for it.

The nurse nodded sagely. "There's always one."

He muffled a snicker. Fuck you vampire. It’s not the blood. But explaining the weird voodoo twin shit wasn’t in the cards today. 

"Just lie down for a minute, honey; it'll pass."

"I know," I sighed. My stomach was finally starting to loosen its hold. The nausea was already fading, albeit slowly.

"Does this happen a lot?" she asked.

"Sometimes," I admitted, though not for the reason you think, I added in my head. Edward coughed to hide another laugh.

"You can go back to class now," she told him.

"I'm supposed to stay with her." He said this with such assured authority that — even though she pursed her lips — the nurse didn't argue it further.

"I'll get you some ice for your forehead, dear," she said to me, and then bustled out of the room.

"You were right," I moaned, letting my eyes close.

"I usually am — but about what in particular this time?"

"Ditching is healthy." I practiced breathing evenly.

"You scared me for a minute there," he admitted after a pause. His tone made it sound like he was confessing a humiliating weakness. "I thought Newton was dragging your dead body off to bury it in the woods."

"Haha ." I still had my eyes closed, but I was feeling more normal every minute.

"Honestly — I've seen corpses with better color. I was concerned that I might have to avenge your murder."

"Poor Mike. I'll bet he's mad." I changed the subject. 

"He absolutely loathes me," Edward said cheerfully.

"You can't know that," I argued, but then I knew he probably did know that. And I knew why Mike hated him unfortunately. I was going to have to deal with that at some point. I wanted to groan at the prospect.

"I saw his face — I could tell." He replied smoothly.

"How did you see me? I thought you were ditching." I was almost fine now, though the queasiness would probably pass faster if I'd eaten something for lunch. On the other hand, maybe it was lucky my stomach was empty. It would have been empty anyways by this point had I eaten. 

"I was in my car, listening to a CD." Such a normal response — it surprised me.

I heard the door and opened my eyes to see the nurse with a cold compress in her hand.

"Here you go, dear." She laid it across my forehead. "You're looking better," she added.

"I think I'm fine," I said, sitting up. Just a little ringing in my ears, no spinning. The mint green walls stayed where they should. My stomach didn’t reject the movement either. Hopefully it stayed this way until I could get home.

I could see she was about to make me lie back down, but the door opened just then, and Ms. Cope stuck her head in.

"We've got another one," she warned.

I hopped down to free up the cot for the next invalid.

I handed the compress back to the nurse. "Here, I don't need this."

And then Mike staggered through the door, now supporting a sallow-looking Lee Stephens, another boy in our Biology class. Edward and I drew back against the wall to give them room.

"Oh no," Edward muttered. "Go out to the office, Bella."

I looked up at him, bewildered.

"Trust me — go."

I spun and caught the door before it closed, darting out of the infirmary. I could feel Edward right behind me.

"You actually listened to me." He was stunned.

"I’m not that much of a petty bitch.” Besides, he had probably stuck his own finger, and if I was playing up the queasy at blood thing, running away was probably a good way to go. 

He was staring at me with an unfathomable expression.

"What?" I asked.

"It's nothing."

Mike came through the door then, glancing from me to Edward. The look he gave Edward confirmed what Edward had said about loathing. He looked back at me, his eyes glum.

"You look better," he accused.

"Just keep your hand in your pocket," I warned him, hoping that I wasn’t hamming it up too much now.

"It's not bleeding anymore," he muttered. "Are you going back to class?"

"Are you kidding? I'd just have to turn around and come back." I lied, I was going home now. If Bella was vomiting I wasn’t leaving her home alone, and there was always the possibility I’d pass back out in gym class anyway. 

"Yeah, I guess… So are you going this weekend? To the beach?" While he spoke, he flashed another glare toward Edward, who was standing against the cluttered counter, motionless as a sculpture, staring off into space.

I tried to sound as friendly as possible. "Sure, Bella and I both said that we were in." I emphasised the fact that Bella was coming too. Why did everyone seem to forget one or the other of us?

"We're meeting at my dad's store, at ten." His eyes flickered to Edward again, wondering if he was giving out too much information. His body language made it clear that it wasn't an open invitation.

"We'll be there," I promised.

"I'll see you in Gym, then," he said, moving with uncertainty toward the door.

"Hmmm,” I replied noncommittally. I would not in fact be seeing him in gym class. “See you later," I added. He looked at me once more, his round face slightly pouting, and then as he walked slowly through the door, his shoulders slumped. 

"Like I’m going to Gym," I scoffed under my breath. 

"I can take care of that." I hadn't noticed Edward moving to my side, but he spoke now in my ear. "Go sit down and look pale," he muttered. I didn’t argue, figuring using his vampire charm to get me out of class was a step better than me telling Mrs. Cope I was going home and having to argue about it.

Looking pale wasn't a challenge either; I was always pale, and my recent swoon had left a light sheen of sweat on my face. I sat in one of the creaky folding chairs and rested my head against the wall with my eyes closed, I was tired. Fainting spells always exhausted me.

I heard Edward speaking softly at the counter.

"Ms. Cope?"

"Yes?" I hadn't heard her return to her desk.

"Kat has Gym class next hour, and I don't think she feels well enough. Actually, I was thinking I should take her home now. Do you think you could excuse her from class?" His voice was like melting honey. I could imagine how much more overwhelming his eyes would be.

"Do you need to be excused, too, Edward?" Ms. Cope fluttered. Why couldn't I do that?

"No, I have Mrs. Goff, she won't mind."

"Okay, it's all taken care of. You feel better, Kat, tell Bella to feel better too," she called to me. I opened my eyes and nodded at her, smiling a little weakly. I hoped I would be able to drive home, I was so drained.

"Can you walk, or do you want me to carry you again?" With his back to the receptionist, his expression became sarcastic.

"I'll walk." I wanted to groan. 

I stood carefully, and I was still fine. He held the door for me, his smile polite but his eyes mocking. I walked out into the cold, fine mist that had just begun to fall. It felt nice as it washed my face clean of the sticky perspiration.

"Thanks," I said as he followed me out.

"Anytime." He was staring straight forward, squinting into the rain.

"So are you going? This Saturday, I mean?" I was hoping he would, though it seemed unlikely. I couldn't picture him loading up to carpool with the rest of the kids from school; he didn't belong in the same world. Also if I remembered correctly, he couldn’t enter reservation land anyways. 

"Where are you all going, exactly?" He was still looking ahead, expressionless.

"Down to La Push, to First Beach." I studied his face, trying to read it. His eyes seemed to narrow infinitesimally.

He glanced down at me from the corner of his eye, smiling wryly. "I really don't think I was invited."

I sighed. "I just invited you." I snarked, knowing the answer would remain the same, but feeling indignant that he acted as if he thought he needed Mike’s permission to join a group outing. 

"Let's you and I not push poor Mike any further this week. We don't want him to snap." His eyes danced; he was enjoying the idea more than he should.

"Mike-schmike." I muttered, preoccupied by the way he'd said "you and I." I liked it more than I should. I felt like I was so easy, pathetically so.

We were near the parking lot now. I veered left, toward my truck. Something caught my jacket, yanking me back.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, outraged. He was gripping a fistful of my jacket in one hand.

I was confused. "I'm going home." I pointed towards my faded orange monster, my eyebrows furrowed. 

"Didn't you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition?" His voice was still indignant.

"What condition? And what about my truck?" I complained. It’s not like I was drunk. Besides, I was feeling almost as good as new now. Just a little tired from the spell. 

"I'll have Alice drop it off after school." He was towing me toward his car now, pulling me by my jacket. It was all I could do to keep from falling backward. He'd probably just drag me along anyway if I did. Stupid, pushy vampire. 

"Let go!" I insisted. He ignored me. I staggered along sideways across the wet sidewalk until we reached the Volvo. Then he finally freed me — I stumbled against the passenger door.

"You are so god damn pushy!" I grumbled at him, huffing out a heavy breath.

"It's open," was all he responded. He got in the driver's side.

"I am perfectly capable of driving myself home!" I stood by the car, fuming. It was raining harder now, and I hadn’t put my hood up, so my hair was starting to drip down my back. Probably bleeding colour from the ombre down my back and my jacket. It would be all over the seats too, once I sat down. 

He lowered the automatic window and leaned toward me across the seat. "Get in, Kat."

I didn't answer. I was mentally calculating my chances of reaching the truck before he could catch me. I had to admit, they weren't good. At all. There were no witnesses around either, so he’d probably pull some sort of vampire speed trick anyways, just to get his way.

"I'll just drag you back," he threatened, guessing my plan.

“Of course you would,” 

I tried to maintain what dignity I could as I got into his car. I wasn't very successful — I looked like a half-drowned cat and my boots squeaked wetly against each other.

"This is completely unnecessary," I said stiffly. 

He didn't answer. He fiddled with the controls, turning the heater up and the music down. As he pulled out of the parking lot, I was preparing to give him the silent treatment — my face in full pout mode — but then I recognized the music playing, and my curiosity got the better of my intentions.

"Clair de Lune ?"I asked, surprised.

"You know Debussy?" He sounded surprised, too.

"Not well," I admitted. "My mother plays a lot of classical music around the house — I only know my favorites.”

"It's one of my favorites, too." He stared out through the rain, lost in thought.

I smiled a bit, “I actually learned to play it on the piano at one point, though that was a long time ago.” Bella and I had taken turns learning our different favourite classical songs on the piano. I had to admit though, Bella was better at it than I was. 

I listened to the music, relaxing against the light gray leather seat. My fingers drummed lightly on my legs as I tried to remember the fingering of the piece. It was impossible not to respond to the familiar, soothing melody. The rain blurred everything outside the window into gray and green smudges. I began to realize we were driving very fast; the car moved so steadily, so evenly, though, I didn't feel the speed. Only the town flashing by gave it away.

"What is your mother like?" he asked me suddenly.

I glanced over to see him studying me with curious eyes.

"She looks a lot like Bella and me, but she's prettier," I said. He raised his eyebrows. "We have too much Charlie in us. She's more outgoing than I am, and braver, though not by much on my part. I’m more like her personality wise than Bella is.” I grinned a little. “She's irresponsible and slightly eccentric, and she's a very unpredictable cook." I stopped. Talking about her was making me miss her. And she still hadn’t located her phone yet, making it that much harder to contact her.

"How old are you, Kat?" His voice sounded frustrated for some reason I couldn't imagine.

He'd stopped the car, and I realized we were at Charlie's house already. The rain was so heavy that I could barely see the house at all. It was like the car was submerged under a river.

"I'm seventeen," I responded, a little confused. Though before I had died in my last life I’d been middle aged. Not that I counted that fact much, considering 

"You don't seem seventeen."

His tone was reproachful; it made me laugh.

"What?" he asked, curious again.

"My mom always says Bella and I were born thirty-five years old and that we get more middle-aged every year." I laughed again at the irony of it, and then sighed. "Well, someone has to be an adult. That’s just the role Bella and I filled" I paused for a second. "You don't seem much like a junior in high school yourself," I noted. He made a face and changed the subject. Checkmate boy. 

"So why did your mother marry Phil?"

I was surprised he would remember the name; I'd mentioned it just once, almost two months ago. Well of course, if he really wanted to he probably could remember everything with his big roomy vampire brain. It took me a moment to answer.

"My mother… She's very young for her age. I think Phil makes her feel even younger. At any rate, she's crazy about him." I shook my head. The attraction was a mystery to me. Of course, my attraction to Edward was a mystery to Bella and myself too so it wasn’t fair to judge. 

"Do you approve?" he asked. I scoffed.

"Does it matter?" I countered. "I want her to be happy… and he is who she wants. Plus it’s not like there’s anything actually wrong with her liking, loving, Phil"

"That's very generous… I wonder," he mused.

"What?"

"Would she extend the same courtesy to you, do you think? No matter who your choice was?"

He was suddenly intent, his eyes searching mine.

"I-I think so," I stuttered, startled by the intensity of his gaze. "But she's the parent, after all. It's a little bit different."

"No one too scary then," he teased.

I grinned in response. "What do you mean by scary? Multiple facial piercings and extensive tattoos?" I raised my pierced eyebrow for emphasis and he chuckled too. He’d have to have noticed the amount of piercings I had from the time we were in the hospital. 

"That's one definition, I suppose." He admitted, chuckling again. He just shook his head at me as I wiggled my eyebrows at him. 

"What's your definition?"

But he ignored my question and asked me another. "Do you think that I could be scary?" He raised one eyebrow, and the faint trace of a smile lightened his face.

“Do you think that I could be scary?” I retorted back, smirking at him and he just rolled his eyes at me. 

“Seriously though,” 

I thought for a moment, wondering whether the truth or a lie would go over better. I decided to go with the truth. "Hmmm… I think you could be , if you wanted to be."

"Are you frightened of me now?" The smile vanished, and his heavenly face was suddenly serious.

"No." Seriousness didn’t equal scary. The smile returned.

"So, now are you going to tell me about your family?" I asked to distract him. "It's got to be a much more interesting story than mine." The vampire clan was definitely an interesting story. Though I decided to focus on the more human aspects of his past. 

He was instantly cautious. "What do you want to know?"

"The Cullens adopted you?" I verified.

"Yes."

I hesitated for a moment. "What happened to your parents?"

"They died many years ago." His tone was matter-of-fact.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, truly sorry that he had lost his human family.

"I don't really remember them that clearly. Carlisle and Esme have been my parents for a long time now." Yes, a very long time.

"And you love them." It wasn't a question. It was obvious in the way he spoke of them.

"Yes." He smiled. "I couldn't imagine two better people."

"You're very lucky."

"I know I am."

"And your brother and sister?"

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

"My brother and sister, and Jasper and Rosalie for that matter, are going to be quite upset if they have to stand in the rain waiting for me."

"Oh, sorry, I guess you have to go." I suddenly didn't want to get out of the car.

"And you probably want your truck back before Chief Swan gets home, so you don't have to tell him about the Biology incident." He grinned at me. And I wanted to groan. First Bella, then myself. 

"I'm sure he's already heard. There are no secrets in Forks." I sighed.

He laughed, and there was an edge to his laughter.

"Have fun at the beach… good weather for sunbathing." He glanced out at the sheeting rain. I wanted to roll my eyes. The forecast said sun for the weekend and slightly beyond. 

"Won't I see you tomorrow?"

"No. Emmett and I are starting the weekend early."

"What are you going to do?" A friend could ask that, right? I hoped the disappointment wasn't too apparent in my voice. Pathetic as I already was. As susceptible to this beautiful and chaotic vampire as I already seemed to be. 

"We're going to be hiking in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, just south of Rainier."

They were more than likely hunting. I couldn’t see the vampires actually camping out when they didn’t need to sleep. 

"Oh, well, have fun." I tried to sound enthusiastic. I don't think I fooled him, though. A smile was playing around the edges of his lips.

"Will you do something for me this weekend?" He turned to look me straight in the face, utilizing the full power of his burning gold eyes.

I nodded helplessly.

"Don't be offended, but you seem to be one of those people who just attract accidents like a magnet. So… try not to fall into the ocean or get run over or anything, all right?" He smiled crookedly.

The helplessness had faded as he spoke. I glared at him. I was a state champion soccer player, and I constantly jogged through the woods since I got here, there’s no way I can’t handle a weekend at the beach and a soccer game. 

"I'll see what I can do," I snapped angrily as I jumped out into the rain. I slammed the door behind me with excessive force.

He was still smiling as he drove away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There should be at least two more updates this month so keep an eye out for those! As always we appreciate all your support and hope you like the ride we are taking you on!


	7. Scary Stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all sorry for the late update! 
> 
> I want to note that in doing this work and researching to topic that the Quileute tribe is real group of people and in our efforts to remain both loyal to the book but true to being decent people we want to inform you that we in no way condone the misrepresentation and if you notice any degrading or problematic representation please inform us and we will do our best to alter the story. We respect the customs and culture of the Quileute Tribe and ask that you remember that this story is not a representation of them and not how we see the real people.  
> Having said this the Quileute people are currently in danger of losing their home to climate change and are fundraising to move to a safer location. If you can donate there will be a link in the description at the end and if you cannot we understand and appreciate if you can help spread the word about "Quileute Move to Higher Ground" and remember them as the real humans they are while reading this and the Original Twilight books. 
> 
> Thank you all so much for the support!

Bella had taken more drugs and passed out on her bed before I had even gotten home. Which probably played a strong part in why I had felt better earlier. I made sure she didn’t have a fever and was wearing blankets before going to my own room to do some homework. 

Now that I was home I was more keyed up then I thought I would be after spending time with Edward today. 

As I sat in my room, trying to concentrate on the third act of Macbeth, I was really listening for my truck. I would have thought, even over the pounding rain, I could have heard the engine's roar. But when I went to peek out the curtain — again — it was suddenly there. 

I hope that he didn’t have Alice carry it home, though that would have been an amusing sight. Though when I checked earlier for my keys they were gone. I had to assume that he pickpocketed me for them before I left his car. 

I wasn't looking forward to Friday, and it more than lived up to my non-expectations. Of course there were the fainting comments. Jessica especially seemed to get a kick out of that story. Bella wasn’t here to staunch the comments either in any capacity as she had decided to stay home and sleep more so that she’d be well enough for the weekend. 

Luckily Mike had kept his mouth shut, and no one seemed to know about Edward's involvement.

She did have a lot of questions about lunch, though.

"So what did Edward Cullen want yesterday?" Jessica asked in Trig.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "He never really got to the point."

"You looked kind of mad," she fished.

"Did I?" I kept my expression blank. There were definitely points in the conversation that I had been agitated. Though I didn’t really want to discuss that with Jessica who seemed to just be nosing for gossip.

"You know, I've never seen him sit with anyone but his family before. That was weird."

"Weird," I agreed plainly. She seemed annoyed that she wasn’t getting anything; she flipped her dark curls impatiently — like I guessed she'd been hoping to hear something that would make a good story to pass around.

The worst part about Friday was that, even though I knew he wasn't going to be there, I still hoped. When I walked into the cafeteria with Jessica and Mike, I couldn't keep from looking at his table, where Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper sat talking, heads close together. And I couldn't stop the gloom that engulfed me as I realized I didn't know how long I would have to wait before I saw him again. Pathetic as always in my obsession with the vampire.

At my usual table, everyone was full of our plans for the next day. Mike was animated again, putting a great deal of trust in the local weatherman who promised sun tomorrow. I'd have to see that before I believed it. But it was warmer today — almost sixty. 

I intercepted a few unfriendly glances from Lauren during lunch, which I didn't understand until we were all walking out of the room together. I was right behind her, just a foot from her slick, silver blond hair, and she was evidently unaware of that.

"…don't know why Kat" — she sneered my name — "doesn't just sit with the Cullens from now on." I heard her muttering to Mike. I was surprised by the malice in her voice, she was one of Bella’s friends, what made us so different? I really didn't know her well at all, certainly not well enough for her to dislike me — or so I'd thought. 

"She's my friend; she sits with us," Mike whispered back loyally, but also a bit territorially. I paused to let Jess and Angela pass me. I didn't want to hear any more.

That night at dinner, Charlie seemed enthusiastic about mine and Bella’s trip to La Push in the morning. I think he felt guilty for leaving us home alone on the weekends, but he'd spent too many years building his habits to break them now. Of course he knew the names of all the kids going, and their parents, and their great-grandparents, too, probably. He seemed to approve. 

He was also getting his weekend plans out of the way so that he could go up to Seattle with us tomorrow night for my game Sunday. 

"Dad, do you know a place called Goat Rocks or something like that? I think it's south of Mount Rainier," I asked casually. Bella stared at me, probably guessing it had something to do with Edward and the vampires I seemed to be a little obsessed with.

"Yeah — why?"

I shrugged. "Some kids were talking about camping there."

"It's not a very good place for camping." He sounded surprised. "Too many bears. Most people go there during the hunting season." 

"Oh," I murmured. "Maybe I got the name wrong." Though I knew now that they were probably hunting bears. Bears right out of hibernation if the season was anything to go by. 

Playing with their food, Bella mouthed at me as she grabbed the dishes. 

“Don’t forget that we have to go to Seattle tomorrow.” Bella reminded both my father and me while she carefully did the dishes. 

I hadn’t let her make dinner tonight either, even though she said she was feeling better and that she was home all day so it would have been no skin off her back. So I had compromised and let her do the dishes tonight, a hopefully non strenuous task for her while she was still recovering. 

I decided to get a start on the essay that was going to be due next week on Macbeth, considering I knew that this weekend wasn’t going to be very open to do homework.

Even though I went to bed quite late last night after finishing my essay, I still got up almost too early for the beach. I decided I needed to go for a jog and I caught Charlie on his way out. 

“Morning Dad,” I said as I grabbed my lightweight sneakers. I had my earbuds dangling from the neck of my sweater. 

“Morning Kat,” He seemed surprised to see me, but when he noticed my attire he nodded as if he couldn’t expect anything less. 

I passed through the door before him, popping my earbuds into my ears and waving at him as I made my way down the street. The sun was starting to rise and I smiled at the idea of a weekend of sun. That should make tomorrow's game much more enjoyable. 

Once I got back from my run, Bella had woken up. She was eating a bagel and smiled at me when I hopped through the door. 

“Morning,” She called after me as I took the stairs two at a time. I needed a shower before we could even consider leaving. 

The Newtons' Olympic Outfitters store was just north of town. I'd seen the store, but I'd only ever stopped there once. They didn’t really stock supplies for running. Their supplies were mostly things required for being outdoors over an extended period of time. 

In the parking lot I recognized Mike's Suburban and Tyler's new Sentra. As I

pulled up next to their vehicles, I could see the group standing around in front of the Suburban.

Eric was there, along with two other boys I had class with; I was fairly sure their names were Ben and Conner. Jess was there, flanked by Angela and Lauren. Three other girls stood with them. 

Bella and I exited the truck and wandered toward the group. 

"You came!" Mike called, delighted when he finally noticed us. "And I said it would be sunny today, didn't I?"

"I told you that we were coming," I reminded him.

"We're just waiting for Lee and Samantha… unless you invited someone," Mike added, eyeing me meaningfully. Bella just looked at me, her eyebrow raised. She definitely knew that I had mentioned that Edward should come, I had told her so last night. Of course, she pointed out how stupid it was for me to do that.

"Nope," I lied lightly, knowing that nobody other than my twin, myself, and Edward would ever know that I had. 

Mike looked satisfied.

"Will you ride in my car? It's that or Lee's mom's minivan."

"Sure."

He smiled blissfully. It was so easy to make Mike happy.

"You can have shotgun," he promised. I hid my chagrin. It wasn't as simple to make Mike and Jessica happy at the same time. I could see Jessica glowering at us now.

The numbers worked out in my favor, though. Lee brought an extra person, and suddenly every seat was necessary. I managed to wedge Jess in between Mike and me in the front seat of the Suburban. Mike could have been more graceful about it, but at least Jess seemed appeased. Bella got stuck in the back with Lauren and her friend whose name I had forgotten.

It was only fifteen miles to La Push from Forks, with gorgeous, dense green forests edging the road most of the way and the wide Quillayute River snaking beside it. I was glad I had the window seat. We'd rolled the windows down — the Suburban was a bit claustrophobic with nine people in it — and I tried to absorb as much sunlight as possible.

Bella and I'd been to the beaches around La Push many times during our Forks summers with Charlie, so the mile-long crescent of First Beach was familiar to me. It was still breathtaking. The water was dark gray, even in the sunlight, white-capped and heaving to the gray, rocky shore. Islands rose out of the steel harbor waters with sheer cliff sides, reaching to uneven summits, and crowned with austere, soaring firs. The beach had only a thin border of actual sand at the water's edge, after which it grew into millions of large, smooth stones that looked uniformly gray from a distance, but close up were every shade a stone could be: terra-cotta, sea green, lavender, blue gray, dull gold. The tide line was strewn with huge driftwood trees, bleached bone white in the

salt waves, some piled together against the edge of the forest fringe, some lying solitary, just out of reach of the waves.

There was a brisk wind coming off the waves, cool and briny. Pelicans floated on the swells while seagulls and a lone eagle wheeled above them. The clouds still circled the sky, threatening to invade at any moment, but for now the sun shone bravely in its halo of blue sky.

We picked our way down to the beach, Mike leading the way to a ring of driftwood logs that had obviously been used for parties like ours before. There was a fire circle already in place, filled with black ashes. Eric and the boy I thought was named Ben gathered broken branches of driftwood from the drier piles against the forest edge, and soon had a teepee-shaped construction built atop the old cinders.

"Have you ever seen a driftwood fire?" Mike asked me. I was sitting on one of the bone-colored benches, Bella on my other side; the other girls clustered, gossiping excitedly, on either side of me. Mike kneeled by the fire, lighting one of the smaller sticks with a cigarette lighter.

"No," Not in this life, I added in my head as he placed the blazing twig carefully against the teepee.

"You'll like this then — watch the colours." He lit another small branch and laid it alongside the first. The flames started to lick quickly up the dry wood.

"It's blue," Bella said in surprise.

"The salt does it. Pretty, isn't it?" He smiled at the two of us and lit one more piece, placed it where the fire hadn't yet caught, and then came to sit by me. Thankfully, Jess was on his other side. She turned to him and claimed his attention. I watched the blue and green flames crackle toward the sky.

After a half hour of chatter, some of the boys wanted to hike to the nearby tidal pools. Bella and I immediately agreed, excited to see them again since we hadn’t been for years now. 

Lauren didn't want to hike, and she was definitely wearing the wrong shoes for it. Most of the other girls besides Angela and Jessica decided to stay on the beach as well. I waited until Tyler and Eric had committed to remaining with them before I got up, dragging Bella along with me and quietly joining the pro-hiking group. Mike gave me a huge smile when he saw that I was coming. 

The hike wasn't too long; though, Bella got caught on a few roots on the way. I ended up being her crutch for a good part of the hike. The green light of the forest was strangely at odds with the adolescent laughter, too murky and ominous to be in harmony with the light banter around me. 

Bella and I made good time though, all my running through the forest really giving me a leg up on my peers. Eventually I broke through the emerald confines of the forest and found the rocky shore again. It was low tide, and a tidal river flowed past us on its way to the sea. Along its pebbled banks, shallow pools that never completely drained were teeming with life.

Bella was very cautious not to lean too far over the little ocean ponds. She was already shivering with every slight gust of wind that came past us, so she was probably just avoiding adding to her chill. I left her to her own devices though, joining the others leaping over and around the pools. Laughter was rising and echoing around us, along with the crashing waves along the rocks. It was beautiful and fun. 

I leaned out over one of the pools, a little precariously, looking at all the pretty coloured anemones and the crabs and other aquatic life scurrying around in each of the little pools. 

I must have leaned a little too far out though, because I started slipping. Luckily Mike caught my arm and he hauled me away from the pool. I could hear the laughter behind me from Jess and Angela. Having peeked over at Bella, I could also see her laughing too. 

I couldn’t help but join in, it was exhilarating, letting go and just having fun. 

Finally, the boys were getting hungry, and I could feel my own stomach beginning to rumble a little. I smiled and walked over to retrieve Bella from her rocky perch, helping her down and joining the group. 

“You seem to be having a good time,” Bella remarked as we picked our way through the dense forest again. I smiled at her. 

“I am having lots of fun. I’m glad I came,” I looked over at her, studying her expression. “You seem to be having less fun though.” 

“I’m fine,” She waved her hand at me dismissively. I sighed, but let it slide. I didn’t really want to get into a battle of wills here while we were out with our friends. They didn’t need to witness a twin cat fight this early on into our relationships. 

When we got back to First Beach, the group we'd left behind had multiplied. As we got closer we could see the shining, straight black hair and copper skin of the newcomers, teenagers from the reservation come to socialize.

The food was already being passed around, and the boys hurried to claim a share while Eric introduced us as we each entered the driftwood circle. Angela, Bella and I were the last to arrive, and, as Eric said our names, I noticed a younger boy sitting on the stones near the fire glance up at me and Bella in interest. I sat down next to Angela, Bella on my other side, and Mike brought us sandwiches and an array of sodas to choose from, while a boy who looked to be the oldest of the visitors rattled off the names of the seven others with him. All I caught was that one of the girls was also named Jessica, and the boy who noticed us Swan twins was named Jacob.

Bella patted my arm at the introduction. 

“Jacob Black? Like our childhood friend from here Jacob?” She whispered in my ear. I studied him a little, though I couldn’t really see the short boy who used to follow me around when I was younger and more reckless. 

“Maybe?” I replied finally, though neither of us had seen our friends from here since we were thirteen. So I guess it wasn’t entirely weird to not recognise them anymore. Bella dropped her line of questioning at that though, and enjoyed the food Mike had supplied for us. 

It was relaxing to sit with Angela; she was a restful kind of person to be around — she didn't feel the need to fill every silence with chatter. She left me free to think undisturbed while we ate.

And I was thinking about how disjointedly time seemed to flow in Forks, passing in a blur at times, with single images standing out more clearly than others. And then, at other times, every second was significant, etched in my mind. I knew exactly what caused the difference, and it disturbed me.

During lunch the clouds started to advance, slinking across the blue sky, darting in front of the sun momentarily, casting long shadows across the beach, and blackening the waves. As they finished eating, people started to drift away in twos and threes. 

Some walked down to the edge of the waves, trying to skip rocks across the choppy surface. Others were gathering a second expedition to the tide pools. Mike — with Jessica shadowing him — headed up to the one shop in the village. Some of the local kids went with them; others went along on the hike. By the time they all had scattered, Bella and I were sitting alone on our driftwood log, with Lauren and Tyler occupying themselves by the CD player someone had thought to bring, and three teenagers from the reservation perched around the circle, including the boy named Jacob and the oldest boy who had acted as spokesperson.

A few minutes after Angela left with the hikers, Jacob sauntered over to take her place by my side. He looked fourteen, maybe fifteen, and had long, glossy black hair pulled back with a rubber band at the nape of his neck. His skin was beautiful, silky and russet-colored; his eyes were dark, set deep above the high planes of his cheekbones. He still had just a hint of childish roundness left around his chin. Altogether, a very pretty face. However, my positive opinion of his looks was damaged by the first words out of his mouth.

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?"

It was like the first day of school all over again.

“Katrina, Kat, actually,” I sighed then pointed behind me. “That’s Bella.” Apparently our different coloured ombres didn’t work so well to tell us apart. 

"I'm Jacob Black." He held his hand out in a friendly gesture. "You bought my dad's truck."

"Oooh," I said, relieved, shaking his sleek hand. He did the same for Bella, reaching around me a little. "You're Billy's son. I probably should remember you better." I chuckled a little bit. 

“Maybe,” he laughed, probably also reminiscing about our younger days where I would make up crazy games and plans and drag the two year younger Jacob into my messes. Bella mostly stayed out of harm's way with Jacobs' elder sisters.

“Your sisters were Rachel and Rebecca right?” Bella asked around my shoulder and I nodded along. He just smiled at us, seeming happy that we at least vaguely remembered the Black siblings we spent many of our summers up in Forks with. “Are they here?” Bella continued her line of questioning. I took a moment to examine the girls at the ocean’s edge, wondering if I would be able to recognise them now. 

"No." Jacob shook his head. "Rachel got a scholarship to Washington State, and Rebecca married a Samoan surfer — she lives in Hawaii now."

"Married. Wow." I was stunned. The Black twins were only a little over a year older than Bella and I were. Probably only about nineteen now. Well, I guess everyone is different. 

"So how do you like the truck?" he asked.

"I love it. It runs great." I said enthusiastically, and Bella nodded along with me. 

"Yeah, but it's really slow," he laughed. "I was so relieved when Charlie bought it. My dad wouldn't let me work on building another car when we had a perfectly good vehicle right there."

"It's not that slow," Bella objected, a somewhat stern note in her voice. I wanted to laugh at her for lecturing Jacob over a truck.

"Have you tried to go over sixty?"

"Not even close," I laughed a little. 

"Good. Don't." He grinned. I couldn't help grinning back. This friendship seemed to be rehashing beautifully. 

"It does great in a collision," I offered with amusement obvious in my voice.

"I don't think a tank could take out that old monster," he agreed with another laugh.

"So you build cars?" Bella asked, impressed.

"When I have free time, and parts.You wouldn't happen to know where I could get my hands on a master cylinder for a 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit?" he added jokingly. He had a pleasant, husky voice.

"Sorry," I laughed again, not even knowing what a master cylinder was. I hadn’t been very savvy in cars in either this life or my last. 

"I haven't seen any lately, but I'll keep my eyes open for you." Bella joked along, Jacob was very easy to talk with.

He flashed a brilliant smile, looking at me and Bella appreciatively in a way I was learning to recognize. I really wished that he wouldn’t though, he was the entirely wrong gender for Bella’s tastes and I wasn’t going to get into this whole business. It seemed like I wasn't the only one who noticed.

"You know Kat, Jacob?" Lauren asked from across the fire. I noticed how she had purposely avoided saying Bella’s name, as if to separate us from one another instead of joining us together like most people did. 

"Bella, Kat, and I… We've sort of known each other since I was born," he laughed, smiling at me again.

"How nice." She didn't sound like she thought it was nice at all, and her pale eyes narrowed in my direction.

"Kat," she called again, watching my face carefully, "I was just saying to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them?" Her expression of concern was unconvincing. I could feel Bella tense behind me. She didn’t like conflict, and it seemed like she enjoyed spending time with Lauren. 

I didn’t know exactly what I had done to hurt her, but at least she wasn’t equating it to something Bella had a hand in. 

I put my hand on Bella’s leg subtly telling her that I was alright. It wasn’t like Lauren’s snub was getting to me anyways. 

"You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" the tall, older boy asked before I could respond, much to Lauren's irritation. He was really closer to a man than a boy, and his voice was very deep.

"Yes, do you know them?" she asked condescendingly, turning halfway toward him.

"The Cullens don't come here," he said in a tone that closed the subject, ignoring her question. Tyler, trying to win back her attention, asked Lauren's opinion on a CD he held. She was distracted.

I stared at the deep-voiced boy, taken aback, but he was looking away toward the dark forest behind us. He'd said that the Cullens didn't come here, but his tone had implied something more — that they weren't allowed; they were prohibited. His manner left a strange impression on me. 

From what I could remember, the Cullens and the tribe held a treaty to prohibit the Cullens from coming onto the land. But this boy was being a little too obvious about it. Shouldn’t he try better to uphold his own end of the treaty? 

Jacob interrupted my meditation. "So is Forks driving you insane yet?"

"Oh, I'd say that's an understatement." I grimaced a little, thinking about everything that had happened since we had come here. He grinned understandingly.

I was still turning over the brief comment on the Cullens, wondering how I could use it to my advantage. There must be a way to do it, without leading the poor boy along. Bella grabbed my hand and smiled, forcing me to stand up with her. She turned toward Jacob and extended her hand. 

"Do you want to walk down the beach with us?" She asked, a bright smile lighting her face. Jacob grinned back and jumped up, seemingly willing enough to walk with us. 

As we walked north across the multihued stones toward the driftwood seawall, the clouds finally closed ranks across the sky, causing the sea to darken and the temperature to drop. I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my jacket. I could see Bella almost shaking with the cold. She probably should have worn more layers for today. 

"So you're, what, sixteen?" Bella asked Jacob, I let her lead the conversation, seeing as she seemed to have an idea. We were on either side of the boy as we walked down the beach. I really hoped it didn’t look like we were cornering the poor guy. 

"I just turned fifteen," he confessed, seeming a little flattered.

"Really?" My face was full of false surprise. "Well I guess you are, what, two years younger than us?” I hummed a little at my line of thought. I could see Bella grinning at me from across Jacob. 

“Do you come up to Forks much?” Bella asked, not letting Jacob get a word in edgewise. 

As Jacob shook his head and opened his mouth to respond I stepped in. “How is Rachel doing at Washington State?” 

His head whipped around to me, his brows furrowed a little. I held a grin down, trying to not give away the strategy. We’re almost there.

“How long has Rebecca been married? I’d love to see pictures sometime, she was probably a gorgeous bride.” Bella added in and he seemed to be confused.

“Who was that older boy Lauren was speaking to earlier? He seemed a bit old to be hanging out with us high school kids.” I decided to pounce in. He seemed to latch onto the question like a life preserver. Something easy and simple. The poor boy. 

“That’s Sam — he's nineteen," he informed us.

"What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?" Bella asked innocently. Though our line of questioning was anything but innocent. Technically, we were forcing this poor confused boy to break the treaty for our own benefit. 

"The Cullens? Oh, they're not supposed to come onto the reservation." He looked away, out toward James Island, as he confirmed our suspicions of the treaty. 

"Why not?" I pried a little bit. 

He glanced back at me, biting his lip. "Oops. I'm not supposed to say anything about that."

"Oh, we won't tell anyone,” Bella tried for a reassuring grin. “We’re just curious."

He thought about it for a moment and looked between the two of us. Then he grinned, seeming to have made a decision. He raised an eyebrow and lowered his voice a little. 

“Do you two like scary stories?” he asked ominously. 

I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. Victory was ours. Thank you very much to my quick witted twin. Who knew a twin tag team of confusion was all it would take to get Jacob to talk. 

“We love them,” I said at the same time as Bella responded “So much better than a romance.”

Jacob steered us toward a nearby driftwood tree that had its roots sticking out like the spindly legs of a huge, pale spider. He perched himself on one of the twisted roots while Bella and I sat beneath him on the body of the tree itself. 

He stared down at the rocks, a smile hovering around the edges of his broad lips. I could see the wheels behind his eyes turning, he was going to try and make this a good scare. I was glad though, I loved getting a thrill out of a story, even if we were only trying to use him to  get the information we needed to finally ingratiate ourselves to the Cullen clan. 

"Do you know any of our old stories, about where we came from — the Quileutes, I mean?" he began.

I thought about it for a few moments. I remembered vaguely a few of the stories the siblings had told us in our childhood. But I couldn’t think of anything specific. 

"Not really," I admitted. He grinned a little.

"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood — supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." He smiled, to show me how little stock he put in the histories. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves — and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.

"Then there are the stories about the cold ones ." His voice dropped a little lower.

"The cold ones?" Bella asked, intrigue evident in her voice. She was leaning forward toward Jacob in her interest and I tried not to laugh at how excited she seemed to be about a scary story.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.

"Your great-grandfather?" I encouraged him a little.

"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf—well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves."

"Werewolves have enemies?" Bella asked, probably thinking about her netflix shows or the books we had read between the two of us. 

"Only one." Jacob responded, his voice deep and ringing with an ominous tone. "So you see," Jacob continued, "the cold ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did — they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces." He winked at me.

"If they weren't dangerous, then why… ?" I tried to ask, ignoring the wink and the ‘pale faces’ crack. 

"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He deliberately worked a thick edge of menace into his tone.

"What do you mean, 'civilized'?" Bella edged.

"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead."

I tried to keep my voice casual. It took almost all of my effort to not jump up. We were so close. "So how does it fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great-grandfather met?"

"No." He paused dramatically. "They are the same ones."

He must have thought the expression on mine and Bella’s faces was fear inspired by his story. He smiled, pleased, and continued.

"There are more of them now, a new female and a new male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been here and gone before your people had even arrived." He was fighting a smile.

"And what are they?" I finally asked. Pushing. I needed him to say it out loud. I needed him to verbalise it. "What are the cold ones?"

He smiled darkly.

"Blood drinkers," he replied in a chilling voice. "Your people call them vampires." 

I stared out at the rough surf after he answered, not sure what my face was exposing. I could feel the exhilaration from getting what we needed from Jacob. I also felt a little guilt that we had purposely used him to get this information. 

"You have goose bumps," he laughed delightedly, staring directly at me.

"You're a good storyteller," I complimented him, still staring into the waves.

“It could have been scarier,” Bella hinted, frowning slightly. Jacob just laughed at her and shrugged. 

"Maybe next time I’ll bring some better material.” He chuckled a few more times. “Pretty crazy stuff, though, isn't it? No wonder my dad doesn't want us to talk about it to anyone." 

I grinned up at him "Don't worry, we won't give you away."

"I guess I just violated the treaty," he laughed. And I chuckled a little right along with him. 

"We'll take it to the grave," Bella promised, and then I felt her shiver almost violently beside me.

"Seriously, though, don't say anything to Charlie. He was pretty mad at my dad when he heard that some of us weren't going to the hospital since Dr. Cullen started working there." I nodded my head.

"I won't, of course not." Charlie seemed very protective of the Cullen clan, I wouldn’t say anything to rile him up about it. Bella wouldn’t either. We didn’t need his suspicion on us either. 

"So do you think we're a bunch of superstitious natives or what?" he asked in a playful tone, but with a hint of worry. I shook my head. 

"No. I think you're very good at telling scary stories, though. I still have goose bumps, see?" I held up my arm.

Bella scoffed at the two of us, but we both just ignored her for the moment. 

"Cool." He smiled.

And then the sound of the beach rocks clattering against each other warned us that someone was approaching. Our heads snapped up at the same time to see Mike and Jessica about fifty yards away, walking toward us.

"There you are, Kat and Bella," Mike called in relief, waving his arm over his head.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Jacob asked, alerted by the jealous edge in Mike's voice. I was surprised it was so obvious. I also wanted to groan loudly. 

"No, definitely not," I whispered. And Bella choked on a laugh, making Jacob look startled at the two of us. 

"So when I get my license…" he began.

"You should come see us in Forks. We could hang out sometime." Bella said with a wide grin. I felt slightly guilty as she said this, knowing that we'd used him. But I really did like Jacob. He was someone I could easily be friends with. And from the looks of it Bella thought so too. 

Mike had reached us now, with Jessica still a few paces back. I could see his eyes appraising Jacob, and looking satisfied at his obvious youth.

"Where have you been?" he asked, looking at me directly, though the answer was right in front of him.

"Jacob was just telling Bella and me some local stories," I volunteered. "It was really interesting." I smiled at Jacob warmly, and he grinned back.

"Well," Mike paused, carefully reassessing the situation as he watched our camaraderie. "We're packing up — it looks like it's going to rain soon."

We all looked up at the glowering sky. It certainly did look like rain.

"Okay." Bella jumped up. Shuddering as she grabbed my arm and hauled me up with her. "We’re coming."

"It was nice to see you both again," Jacob said, and I could tell he was taunting Mike just a bit. Though I was glad that he addressed this to both Bella and I. Though Bella herself didn’t seem to care too much, she was already picking her way across the rocks and back to the rest of the group. 

"It really was. Next time Charlie comes down to see Billy, we'll come, too," I promised.

His grin stretched across his face. "That would be cool."

"And thanks," I added earnestly.

I pulled up my hood as we tramped across the rocks toward the parking lot. A few drops were beginning to fall, making black spots on the stones where they landed. When we got to the Suburban the others were already loading everything back in. I crawled into the backseat by Angela and Bella, announcing that I'd already had my turn in the shotgun position. Angela just stared out the window at the escalating storm, and Lauren twisted around in the middle seat to occupy Bella's attention, so I could simply lay my head back on the seat and close my eyes and try very hard not to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say that we will be updating more regularly but it's reaching end of term and the workload just keeps growing. So expect probably one update between next week and the week before new years. 
> 
> Again a note that the Quileute are an actual native group that live on the lands near Forks Washington and the depictions of them in both this fanfiction are in no way to be taken as a proper representation of the real people. We based the story solely on the books written by Stephanie Myers.   
> The Quileute people are currently raising money to move to a safer space as their home is being threatened by climate change. Please take a moment to check out their website and donate if you can.  
> Quileute Move to Higher Ground: https://mthg.org/ 
> 
> Thank you all for the support we hope you are staying safe and warm this winter season!


	8. Nightmare

Charlie greeted Bella and I at the door, having already packed his bags for our overnight stay in Seattle. We quickly went upstairs ourselves, stripping out of our damp clothes and changing into comfy driving and lounging clothing. We also packed quickly. I grabbed my soccer bag that was stuffed behind the rocking chair in the corner of my room and moved down the stairs at a quick pace. 

I noticed that Charlie had set the table with all the ingredients needed to make basic wraps, so we sat down together and had a quick meal. 

“We’ll get something more substantial for a late dinner once we get to Seattle,” Charlie stated as he donned his jacket and boots. “You girls ready to go?” 

“Definitely,” Bella said with enthusiasm. Probably a mixture of excitement from being able to see our friends and her girlfriend. I rolled my eyes, grabbing my headphones off the counter where I had left them after my run this morning. 

“Alrightie,” Charlie said and then we all tramped out to the cruiser. Our three overnight bags and my soccer bag fit very easily in the trunk, and Bella and I each stuck our headphones in to listen to our own music on the long drive. 

All three of us had wildly different musical tastes, so this let Charlie listen to whatever radio station he wanted, and then Bella and I could also listen to whatever we wanted. 

Almost four hours later we were pulling into the parking lot of the hotel. The sun was starting to fade past the horizon as we pulled our stuff out of the cruiser and headed into the hotel. As soon as we entered I noticed Noah’s wild pink hair spiked up everywhere. 

“Oh my god!” I shrieked, the girliest thing I’d done in a while. I dropped my bags and ran over to my friends. I could almost feel Charlie rolling his eyes at me but I ignored the party pooper as he went to check us in. 

“I know it’s only been a few weeks, but god I’ve missed you two,” Amanda crushed both Bella and I to her chest. She stood almost a head taller than the both of us, her platinum blond hair in wild curls around her face. 

“I’ve missed you too!” I heard Holly pipe up, and Amanda passed us off. I hugged Tess quickly after that, then let Bella and Tess just stand in the lobby hugging each other as if their lives depended on it. 

“How are you girls?” Charlie asked as he came over, burdened by all four of our bags. I grinned and reached for my two, he seemed relieved to hand them off, along with a room key. 

“We’re good Mr. Swan,” Holly laughed as she looked at her own fraternal twin and my identical one as they were still stuck together. She nudged my shoulder and I grinned. 

“Get a room you two!” We both crowed at the same time and then cackled as we took off back to the room that the four of them were sharing. 

I heard grumbling as Bella, Tess, Amanda, and Noah followed behind us. I was on cloud nine. I had missed my posse so much and every time I saw them it almost made it worse. If I could, I would make it so that this season would never end. Since I knew this was my last season playing soccer with my friends. 

Luckily it seemed like our rooms were pretty close to each other, if the room key Charlie had given me was any indication. He also followed behind us, going only a few doors farther down. 

“I’m going to order Pizza, want any girls?” He asked the six of us and we all called our affirmations before we disappeared into their room.

* * *

“Go!” I shouted from my center defensive position, I saw Noah and Holly running like their lives depended on it. We didn’t want overtime and there were only two more minutes left of the second half. We were tied at one-one and both us and the other team were playing their best. Neither of us could afford to lose here. 

I saw the whizz of pink as Noah sets up and shoots. I held my breath and then saw the goalkeeper miss it. 

“YES!” My entire team, and myself screamed as Noah ran down the field, her arms raised. 

She made it to me and jumped into my arms and I twirled her around as the team converged on us. The ref got ready to set us back up, we had about five minutes of extra time due to interruptions, and less than a minute more left on the official clock. We just needed to keep them from scoring another goal. 

I could tell that they were getting desperate, making sloppy mistakes. I kicked the ball away from one of their forwards, passing it to Shania, one of our own forwards. She ran the ball back up the field to the other side. 

I heard the whistle blow, that’s time. That's a game!

We all lined up and shook hands with the other team before we ran to the bench, where the subs were sitting. Our entire team huddled and screamed in excitement. We made it to the next round of knockouts! 

Our coach tried to wrangle us up for a post game speech, but he gave up after a little bit, letting us celebrate. 

Everyone was talking animatedly about the game as we went to the changerooms and stripped. Many of us went for showers, it had rained on us for part of the game and we were all muddy, sweaty, and gross. 

After the showers we all went back to the hotel to celebrate. The coach had rented out a conference room for the weekend for the meetings and today he threw us a little celebration party. Charlie, Tess, and Bella and a few other siblings and parents who had come with the team up to Seattle for the game were also there. Though Bella and Tess seemed to be mostly in their own little world. Probably savering every last moment they could get since Charlie, Bella, and I would be going back to forks tonight. The rest of the team would be departing tomorrow morning for Phoenix. 

“I’m glad you could make the game kid, we’ll see you down in Phoenix in about two weeks,” Coach Brennan clapped me on my shoulder before moving to a crowd of parents. 

Eventually, Charlie had to wrangle Bella and I up so that we could leave. He had to get up tomorrow for work and Bella and I for school. We also had a four hour drive back home. 

“We’ll miss you!” Holly, Amanda, and Noah hugged me tightly as we were standing outside of Charlie’s cruiser. Tess and Bella were having a teary goodbye off to the side. 

“I’ll miss you guys too, but we’ll see you soon enough!” I smiled before we all separated. I slid into the seat, waving at Tess. Bella hugged our other friends quickly, giving Tess one last goodbye kiss before she joined me in the seat and closed the door. 

I could have sworn I heard Charlie mutter - finally - before he pulled out of the hotel parking lot. Bella and I waved at our waving friends until we couldn’t see them anymore, then I slumped into the seat. 

“Tired?” Charlie asked me with a chuckle, looking in the rearview mirror. 

“Exhausted.” I replied, my eyes closing without my permission. 

I heard Charlie chuckling still. “Of course, the two of you probably didn’t get much sleep staying in your friends hotel room last night.” I rolled my eyes at my father. “I don’t know how you find all that energy to run around all day and still party after not sleeping.” He adjusted the radio volume so that it became a low muttering in the background. “You two can sleep on the drive. I’ll wake you up when we get home.” 

Bella and I both fell into an exhausted stupor, we barely made it into the house when we got home. I all but collapsed on my bed after stripping off my clothes. I layed there in my underwear and tank top wondering if I really needed to put pj’s on. But before I could even make that decision my eyes closed and I fell back to sleep. 

I opened my eyes to a familiar place. Aware in some corner of my consciousness that I was dreaming, I recognized the green light of the forest from yesterday. I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks somewhere nearby. And I knew that if I found the ocean, I'd be able to see the sun. I was trying to follow the sound, but then Jacob Black was there, tugging on my hand, pulling me back toward the blackest part of the forest.

"Jacob? What's wrong?" I asked. His face was frightened as he yanked with all his strength against my resistance; I didn't want to go into the dark.

"Run, Kat, you have to run!" he whispered, terrified.

"This way, Kat!" I recognized Mike's voice calling out of the gloomy heart of the trees, but I couldn't see him.

"Why?" I asked, still pulling against Jacob's grasp, desperate now to find the sun.

“Where’s Bella?” I asked but then Jacob let go of my hand and yelped, suddenly shaking, falling to the dim forest floor. He twitched on the ground as I watched in horror.

"Jacob!" I screamed. But he was gone. In his place was a large red-brown wolf with black eyes.

The wolf faced away from me, pointing toward the shore, the hair on the back of his shoulders bristling, low growls issuing from between his exposed fangs.

"Kat, run!" Mike cried out again from behind me. But I didn't turn. I was watching a light coming toward me from the beach.

And then Edward stepped out from the trees, his skin faintly glowing, his eyes black and dangerous. He held up one hand and beckoned me to come to him. The wolf growled at my feet.

I took a step forward, toward Edward. He smiled then, and his teeth were sharp, pointed.

"Trust me," he purred.

I took another step.

The wolf launched himself across the space between me and the vampire, fangs aiming for the jugular.

"No!" I screamed, wrenching upright out of my bed.

My sudden movement caused my head to spin. I looked down and noticed that I hadn’t even bothered to put on my pj’s before sleeping. My hair was probably a rats nest on my head. 

I glanced, disoriented, at the clock on my dresser. It was only five-thirty in the morning. I groaned loudly, falling back into bed. My muscles were screaming, my brain was screaming. I rolled over and tried to close my eyes again. 

But, despite my best efforts and the exhaustion that had a hold on my body and soul, I could not force myself to go back to sleep. 

I sighed, kicking my feet in agitation before sitting up again. I rose from my bed and grabbed my toiletries bag, deciding a long, hot shower was in the cards if I couldn’t go back to sleep. 

My muscles relaxed under the hot stream and I brushed my teeth vigorously, not remembering if I had brushed them last night before passing out. I looked at the clock again and noticed it was only six and I wanted to groan. 

Usually I would be just getting up to go for a run. But with the way my muscles ached from yesterday and Saturdays activities, I decided a run wasn’t really in the cards for my morning. 

I peeked out my curtains and noticed that Charlie’s cruiser was gone already, and I frowned feeling a little guilty. He had to get up so early for work this morning and yet we had stayed pretty late in Seattle. We’d have to make him something really good for dinner to make up for it. 

I decided ultimately that I should look over the Macbeth essay that was due Wednesday. I had finished it Friday evening so I was really just walking myself over it again to pass the time. I didn’t know what else to do. 

I brought my laptop down to the kitchen for good measures and decided to make a fancy breakfast. Sausage, eggs, cut strawberries, and toast. I made sure to make enough for Bella too for when she showed up downstairs. I put the plate in the microwave to try and keep it warm for her. 

As the sun started to rise, I was startled. It was so very rarely bright and sunny here that I was almost happy. Then I could feel my stomach drop when I remembered that I wouldn’t see any of the vampire family while it was sunny out. Then I thought about hitting my head on the wall for even thinking about that. 

I needed a distraction. I rushed upstairs, my laptop in hand to see Bella standing in my room nearly naked, looking through the closet. 

“Hey, yo! You scared me!” Bella cried as she turned around to look at me, her hands over her heart. 

“Oh hush!” I waved my hand to silence her. I tossed my closed laptop onto the bed and went straight for the window, opening its curtains wide and sliding the window open. Surprisingly it moved without much effort, though I didn’t remember the last time I had opened it. I shrugged it off though, leaning out the window and breathing in the almost warm, dry air. 

“Bella, Bella look!” I pointed excitedly and she just stared at me as if I had grown another head. 

“Kat….” She paused, dragging my name out. “I am half naked, and you are too sleep deprived. Stop it.” She warned me, her tone implying she would take no shit. I just rolled my eyes not even bothering to retort. 

“How much did you sleep anyways? When did you wake up?” 

“Oh, like five am or something like that,” I waved it off. “Your breakfast is in the microwave.” I turned around to see her pulling a light blue hoodie over her head, her braid looking slightly slept in. 

I decided to also pull my hair up into a top knot, showing off my overly pierced ears. I smiled to myself as Bella just scoffed at me while trying to slide into a pair of black skinny jeans. 

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that Bella seemed a little extra pale. I turned around and grabbed her shoulders. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, a little tired is all.” She muttered, trying to shake free of my grip. I stood there for a minute just breathing and feeling. I finally noticed the subtle knotting in my stomach. Though it wasn’t as bad as a few days ago.

“You’re not fine!” I accused, darkly. “You cannot hide it from me.” I glared at my twin tugging her and sitting her down on the bed. 

“Oh stop,” She tried to fight me off but gave up and sat down. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing specific, too generalised. I don’t know,” She shrugged her shoulders, not looking me in the eyes. 

“Oh fuck off with that nonesense.” I finally let go of her and stepped back. 

“Oh shut up. I’m fine enough to go to school.” She finally snapped at me, she stood up and marched off, muttering about me being an overprotective mother hen. I wanted to tell her that was her and not me, but I figured I didn’t want to be punched at just shy seven in the morning. So I kept my mouth firmly shut and just grabbed my book bag before heading down the stairs. 

“Charlie already gone?” Bella commented as she grabbed her plate from the microwave, without even bothering to heat it up she started to eat. 

“Heathen!” I cried out, running down to the basement to grab the truck keys from my pants pocket that I wore on Saturday to the beach. 

“Oh shut up, it’s fine semi-cold!” She called after me and I made audible gagging noises for her benefit as I climbed back up the stairs, keys firmly in my hand. 

She finished her breakfast quickly and we both threw on sneakers instead of our rain boots, happily. 

“You think we’ll need them?” She asked, pointing to our raincoats. I sighed, pulling my smartphone from my back pocket. I swiped through my weather app for a few seconds before shaking my head. 

“Probably not, though I’m not even going to bother.” I laughed as I marched toward the front door. I heard Bella’s sigh from behind me and tried to not laugh at her. 

“If you get sick it’s not my fault!” She called, while locking the door. Her own raincoat firmly held in her arm. 

“You need to live a little!” 

“Oh fuck off, I’m living just fine not constantly trying to test my endurance and the elements.” 

“You hush now,” I climbed into the drivers side of the truck. I had realised quickly that Bella didn’t really enjoy driving too much, though she was perfectly capable of doing it. If there was an option she would opt out. I liked driving though, so I wasn’t too against being our main chauffeur. 

I noticed as we pulled in that there were still very few cars in the lot. I looked down at my phone after I had parked and noticed that we were very early. 

“Apparently you didn’t sleep too well either eh?” I asked her as we both got out of the truck. 

“No, though I can guess why YOU didn’t.” She smirked at me as we walked together toward one of the seldom used picnic tables on the south side of the cafeteria. They were slightly damp, though I didn’t care all that much and just sat on the table. 

Bella layed out her unused raincoat on the bench and sat down beside me. Though I was looking down on her from my vantage point. 

“You want to take a guess?” I finally retorted and she just laughed. 

“I’m guessing it was a sparkly fever dream!” She cackled and I dropped my head into my hands, groaning loudly. 

“This is fucking awful. I thought I was fine because nothing happened Saturday night.” I sighed and looked back at Bella’s highly amused expression. “But apparently not.” 

“Fate’s a bitch, ain’t she?” 

“For sure, and I hate it.” 

Bella looked almost thoughtful. “But can you really not fight it? Is it impossible?” 

“I don’t know Bella. It’s like I’m being dragged somewhere without much will of my own. I’m barely floating along in the current.”

“Hmmm,” She looked off into the distance and I saw her studying the trees. They were quite pretty looking, red bark and bright green foliage. 

“Bella! Kat!” I heard a voice calling out to us. I recognised the voice as Mike, and I turned slightly to see him making his way over to us. I also noticed that the school was beginning to become more and more populated as the time crawled on.

Everyone seemed to be in short sleeved shirts, some were even daring enough to wear shorts, though it definitely wasn’t warm enough for that. Even I wasn’t daring enough to wear shorts yet. But Bella and I in our different coloured hoodies and similar black jeans seemed almost overdressed in the crowd. 

Mike was one of the daring ones, he was walking toward us in a pair of Khaki shorts and a striped Rugby shirt, waving at us when he realised we had both turned. 

“Hey Mike,” Bella called back, and I waved at him for good measure. He came over and propped himself on the table top across from me. His hair seemed to shine, a little bit of gold in the sunlight. He grinned at the two of us, though I noticed how his eyes lingered on me a little longer than Bella and I had to hold back from rolling my eyes. 

We looked the same, we were dressed the same. The only difference in our looks were my piercings. I don’t really understand why he seemed to appreciate looking at me more than my twin. Though I didn’t really want him to oggle her either. 

“I never noticed, you guys have some red in your hair,” he commented as he reached for a flyaway strand from my top knot and caught it in his fingers. 

I flinched back a little bit, but Bella distracted him.

“Only in the sun. It’s almost too red in the sun.”

Mike seemed to try and tuck the strand behind my ear and it took almost all of my willpower to not cringe away from the gesture. As soon as he finished, with a satisfied smirk on his face, I reached up and tucked it and any other flyaways back. Hoping to discourage another touch. 

“Great day, isn’t it?”

“Our kind of day,” Bella grinned as she agreed. 

“So, what did you two do yesterday?” His tone seemed a little too proprietary for my tastes. 

“Um, I had a soccer game up in Seattle,” I said. “I also worked on my essay,” I added, though I wasn’t going to point out that that was actually this morning at like five thirty. And no need to mention that mine was finished Friday in the first place.

He hit his forehead with the heel of his hand. "Oh yeah — that's due Thursday, right?"

"Um, Wednesday, I think." Bella replied.

"Wednesday?" He frowned. "That's not good… What are you writing yours on?"

"Whether Shakespeare's treatment of the female characters is misogynistic." He stared at me like I'd just spoken in pig Latin.

“How Shakespeare’s use of language and humour helps build his tragedies.” Bella responded only a second after me, and Mike looked a little green after hearing that. 

"I guess I'll have to get to work on that tonight," he said, deflated. "I was going to ask if you wanted to go out." He looked at me in the eyes then and I could feel the surprise colouring my expression.

"Oh." I was taken off guard. Why couldn't I ever have a pleasant conversation with Mike anymore without it getting awkward? I didn’t think I had done anything to lead him on. I didn’t want his affections, I liked his friendship. 

"Well, we could go to dinner or something… and I could work on it later." He smiled at me hopefully.

"Mike…" I hated being put on the spot like this. I hated the advances I seemed to be getting. I wasn’t interested, not like this anyways. "I don't think that would be the best idea." I added.

His face fell. "Why?" he asked, his eyes guarded. My thoughts flickered to Edward, wondering if that's where his thoughts were as well. I looked at Bella, hoping to garner some help from my twin, but she just leaned back a little, seemingly amused by the conversation. She knew that I was uncomfortable and she was enjoying it. I sighed, deciding to go for the obvious. 

"I think… and if you ever repeat what I'm saying right now I will cheerfully beat you to death," I threatened, "but I think that would hurt Jessica's feelings."

He seemed like he was bewildered, obviously not thinking in that direction at all. "Jessica?"

"Really, Mike, are you blind?" Bella finally put in her two cents, not that it helped me much now. At least she could corroborate. 

"Oh," he exhaled — clearly dazed. I took advantage of that to make my escape.

"It's time for class, and I can't be late again." I hopped off the top of the picnic table, taking a step before turning and motioning that Bella should follow me. She smirked a little as she rose and grabbed her jacket. But she did follow me, thankfully. 

We walked in silence to building three, and Mike’s expression was distracted. I hoped whatever thoughts he was immersed in were leading him in the right direction.

When I saw Jessica in Trig, she was bubbling with enthusiasm. She, Angela, and Lauren were going to Port Angeles tonight to go dress shopping for the dance, and she wanted Bella and me to come, too, even though neither of us needed one. I was indecisive. It would be nice to get out of town with some girlfriends, but Lauren would be there. And who knew what I could be doing tonight… But that was definitely the wrong path to let my mind wander down. Of course I was happy about the sunlight. But that wasn't completely responsible for the euphoric mood I was in, not even close.

So I gave her a maybe, telling her that we'd have to talk with Charlie first. But Bella’s face told me that even if I agreed to go, she wasn’t going to be making an appearance. 

Jessica talked of nothing but the dance on the way to Spanish, continuing as if without an interruption when class finally ended, five minutes late, and we were on our way to lunch. Bella looked almost bored with the topic, so it was on me to try and make sure she didn’t notice both of our disengagement from her topic of choice. 

As was my routine, I glanced first toward the Cullens' table. A shiver of panic trembled in my stomach as I realized it was empty, though I had known it would be. With slight hope, my eyes scoured the rest of the cafeteria, though the act was futile and I knew it. The place was nearly filled — Spanish had made us late — but there was no sign of Edward or any of his family. Of course not. 

We were late enough that everyone was already at our table, I very obviously avoided the empty chair that was by Mike, and decided instead to seat myself next to Angela. Bella followed me and sat across the table next to one of Mike’s friends whose name was Shane, or Shawn. I felt a little bad for not remembering it. 

I vaguely noticed that Mike held the chair next to him out politely for Jessica and that her face lit up in response. I smiled a little, hoping that they could be happy together and that Mike would leave me alone with the flirting if he and Jessica started going out. 

Angela asked me a few questions about the Macbeth paper, which I attempted to answer as best as I could, Bella supplying her own answers to help me when I got stuck. 

She then also extended the invitation for Bella and I to join them in Port Angeles tonight. With a brief glance at Bella who simply smiled and shook her head.

“Sorry, I don’t really feel like shopping, though Kat will go with you,” She offered me up and I rolled my eyes. I might as well, what else was I going to do tonight? I had already finished all my major assignments anyway. It would also be a good distraction from the currently MIA vampire clan I seemed to be a little too obsessed with. 

Biology was boring, we were going over punnett squares and genetic variables and it was all I could do to keep my head from falling onto my desk. My exhaustion from my lack of sleep and weird fever dreams beginning to rear its ugly head. 

In gym class, we had a lecture about the rules of badminton, and I was nearly snoring throughout all of it. I knew how to play the game and I wasn’t about to give up on a few good minutes of nap time. 

Somehow, coach Clapp didn’t manage to finish explaining the rules, so we would have to finish those tomorrow. I wanted to roll my eyes so bad, it’s not like the game was hard. 

I wandered out of the class and headed to the truck, noticing that Bella had beaten me to it. 

“This afternoon was a snoozefest.” I grumbled as we both crawled in. 

“I know, but we’re also at fault for not skipping the grades we could have when we had the chance.” She told me. 

“I would have just been a bored fourteen year old in these same classes instead of a bored seventeen year old one,” I pointed out to her and she just laughed as I started the truck. 

When I pulled into the driveway, I wondered what I should do until Jessica and the others came to pick me up to go shopping, but then my cell rang. Jessica was cancelling our plans. I was happy to hear that Mike had asked her out on the plans he had meant for me, not that I would ever, ever tell her that little tid-bit of information. I was relieved that Bella’s and my hints seemed to be catching on for Mike. She decided to reschedule our shopping trip for the next night, telling me to see if I couldn’t convince Bella to come along too. 

I promised I would try, though I knew it was futile. Bella hated shopping. She probably figured her time would be better spent doing almost anything else.

I suddenly didn’t know what to do with myself. Bella was in charge of dinner tonight, so I wasn’t needed in the kitchen. I spent a focused half an hour on homework, but there wasn’t much in the way of distraction once that was done. 

I checked my emails, I noticed several from my mother, but then I also saw the ones from Bella where I had been CC’d in her responses. I sighed and shut that down, realising that I didn’t even need to write to her. Bella was much better at soothing our high strung mother than I was anyways. I was a little too high strung myself. 

I wandered over into Bella’s room, plopping down on the bed beside her. She seemed very intent on whatever was on her phone screen and I rolled over until I was laying with my head on her stomach. 

“You seem bored,” She patted my head gently, not even looking up from her phone. 

“I don’t know what to do,” I groaned. She chuckled at me. 

“You could just go read something.” 

“Yeah, read something.”

“Maybe go out for a stroll if that doesn’t suit you.” 

I sighed and stood up, deciding that Bella was going to be no help. 

I went down stairs, grabbing my headphones and plugging them in, pulling on my running shoes and heading out the door. It was still warm and bright, so I decided to wander the path I knew was out behind the house. 

I put on “This Little Girl” by Caddy Groves and started marching, picking my way through the trail, not really focusing on my surroundings. Just as the sun started to set I managed to loop back around to the house, the trail having a fork that let me head back and loop around to the other side of the house. It was nice for a short walk or run when I didn’t want to travel far. 

I felt my heavy eyelids as I came back upon the house. Charlie’s cruiser pulled into the driveway just as I got back. 

“Hi dad,” I greeted him with a wave. Then I yawned widely. 

“Hey Rina, Bells got dinner?” He asked as he waited for me to reach him. I nodded, another yawn taking over my ability to speak. He chuckled at me as he led the way to the house. 

“Tired from the weekend still, kid?” He clomped off his boots and I started to slip off my running shoes. 

“Yeah, I might have slept too hard last night and not enough Saturday.” I headed to the dining room table. Bella was almost done with the food and greeted the two of us with a smile. She looked a little less pale than she had this morning, so I was hopeful whatever it was had passed. 

“Hey dad,” I started as we were just finishing dinner, he hummed and looked up at me. “Jessica and Angela are going to look at dresses for the dance tomorrow in Port Angeles, and they asked if I could come along and help them choose.” 

“What about Bells?”

“I don’t really want to go dad, though they did invite me,” She muttered back, avoiding his probing eyes. He shrugged and looked at me. 

“Can I go?”

“Jessica Stanley?” He asked. I sighed. 

“And Angela Weber, yes.” 

“But you guys aren’t going to the dance, right?” He flipped his gaze between the two of us as he said that. I rolled my eyes

“No dad we aren’t” We both said at the same time. Then I continued. 

“They want help finding their dresses. You know, giving them constructive criticisms and advice.” I tried to explain it in a way to let him understand. I wasn’t going to the dance, just helping friends out. 

“Well… alright.” He seemed to feel a little out of his depth discussing the girly stuff. “It’s a school night though.”

"We'll leave right after school, so we can get back early. Bella'll be here for dinner still, though."

“We’ll be fine for a night without you.” He chuckled at me. 

I decided to head to bed right after dinner, after I had completed washing the dishes. I was exhausted and didn’t need to fall asleep on my friends tomorrow while we were shopping. 

It was sunny again in the morning. I awakened with renewed vigor. I decided to dress a little fancier, a deep blue blouse - something Bella and I had been able to wear in the dead of winter back in Phoenix - and a pair of black skinny jeans. My combat boots fit well with the outfit and I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail and threw on a few rings to add to the look. 

Bella came in to grab a long knit cardigan to put over her tank top and leggings, just as I finished getting ready. 

“Looking fancy,” she commented, giving me a once over. 

“You’re looking cute and comfy yourself. You sure you don't want to come to Port Angeles with us?”

“Nah, I’ll just lounge around the house without my annoying little sister hanging around,” She nudged my shoulder as we headed down stairs. We both grabbed granola bars and headed for the truck. 

“It’s only like ten minutes and I’m not that annoying. You’d miss me if I was gone forever.”

“Oh hell yes, you aren’t allowed to leave me behind entirely.” She laughed as we both climbed into the truck. “But sometimes alone time is nice.” 

I just nodded as I drove us to the school. After I locked the truck up, I handed Bella the key, since I would just be going with Jessica after school. 

Lauren was unfortunately busy due to other obligations, making the trip diminish to just Jessica, Angela, and myself. I decided to put on my big girl pants and have some fun with the girls in Port Angeles. Maybe I could even find myself something nice if I was lucky. 

After school I met up with Bella briefly to give her my backpack. I had grabbed my small purse and stuffed it in my bag before we had left this morning. I was glad I didn’t have to carry my big bag around the entire time. 

I quickly checked to make sure I had my wallet and cell phone and then said goodbye to Bella. 

“Have fun tonight!” She called after my retreating figure before she started up our truck and headed home. 

I met Jessica beside her old white car, we were going to follow Angela home so that she could drop her car off before we left. I was beginning to feel a little excitement at going somewhere with my new friends, even if it was only dress shopping about an hour and a half drive away. 

Angela was already waiting for us when we pulled up to her house, and I smiled as she hopped into the back. My excitement grew even more as we passed the boundaries of Forks, heading toward our destination.


	9. Port Angeles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, Author here. (and I’m actually an entirely different entity than the person who posts this, thus why it took me a while to address some of these things). I noticed two questions/points I thought I needed to explain before going forward.   
> First, I saw a question asking why I kept one of the twins named Isabella. My thought behind that was that even though I’ve added an extra child/character, it wouldn’t change the reason behind why Isabella was named that way in the first place. Adding a child more than likely wouldn’t have changed the reason behind why Renee and Charlie chose to name their kid Isabella. They just had to name two kids this round instead of the original one. That thought process is ultimately why I left one of the twins named Isabella.   
> Second, I know this follows the story WAY TOO CLOSELY for the first little bit. Honestly, if I was a reader I’d be mad about it too, which is why I want to address this point right now.   
> This fanfiction (my first fanfiction I ever wrote mind you) came about because of an argument (or I guess a string of several arguments and debates) I had with my sister/the uploader of this story here. This summer we were reading midnight sun together while (slowly going a little crazy) in quarantine and we started getting into debates about certain things and about how we thought we would react in the same situation as OG. THAT is purely the reason I started this whole thing. It just so happens that my sister wanted to post it online, and I really had no problem with it, so here we are. That is also why the story so far is following along so closely to the original, because honestly, until this point, I personally don’t think that I would really have reacted much differently when put in the same situation, EVEN WITH the prior knowledge that they have. Things, DO and WILL change the farther we go along, because past a certain point in the story I would DEFINITELY change certain things, ESPECIALLY if I came into the situation with prior knowledge (ALSO they don’t remember everything, gosh I don’t remember everything, many specifics and events will be surprises too along with the ones they remember). That point of major change is the next few chapters. I’m slowly going from following the story closely and moving toward my original goal, how my sister and/or myself think we would react when thrown into this situation.   
> Also, with that, comes the whole “why not change everything then, it is your AU.” This is purely because as much as I may not like certain aspects of the Twilight universe and certain points, even the critical ones, doesn’t mean that these books were all complete trash. I have a kind of childlike fondness for them, I read the series almost religiously when I was a young highschooler (along with several other even more cringy vampire series, trust me, there are SO MUCH WORSE out there). With this, I don’t want to stray TOO far from the main plot points, though I’m going to have to at the end of the day either way to fulfil my AU desires, but up until now I wanted to keep things the same or similar to an extent (maybe too similar for a bit there I have to admit, and that might be edited later. This is kinda the ‘shitty first draft’ version).   
> If this is really a problem for you either push through it because IT WILL CHANGE, already does start to change in a few previous chapters and in the coming chapters and will continue to do so drastically as we move along, because no I don’t want my MC to be the doormat that OG was. OR you can just stop reading it. Really the two options. I just don’t want “It’s the same” comments to be flooding through the story chapters up until now cause, yeah, I know. It really is the same in the early chapters, trust me, I know it is. You don’t need to say it. This story is mostly just my stress relief from university because it's fun, and now my stress relief is available to you guys.   
> I hope that answers a few of the questions you had. If you want me to address any other major or lingering questions in another Author's Note in the future you can put a little A/N before your question. My sister will let me know and I can answer, or at least try to answer, the next chapter that is posted. Of course, you can ask questions without the A/N, my sister has as much information as I do on the story and can answer a majority of the questions with confidence.   
> With this long rant out of the way, I hope you enjoy. And sorry for the ranting.   
> \- Kat (Author)

Jessica drove faster than the Chief, so we made it to Port Angeles by five. We listened to older rock songs while Jessica talked at length about her date with Mike last night. Her dinner date had gone very well, and she was hoping that by Saturday night they would have progressed to the first-kiss stage. 

I smiled to myself, pleased, and encouraged her. I hoped myself that her and Mike would progress that far and I wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore. Angela was passively happy to be going to the dance, but not really interested in Eric like that. Jessica tried to get her to confess who her type was, but when I noticed that the more Jessica pressed her the more withdrawn Angela got, I interrupted with a question about dresses, to help spare her. Angela threw a grateful glance my way.

Port Angeles was a beautiful little tourist trap, much more polished and quaint than Forks. But Jessica and Angela knew it well, unlike me, so they didn't plan to waste time on the picturesque boardwalk by the bay. Jessica drove straight to the one big department store in town, which was a few streets in from the bay area's visitor-friendly face.

The dance was billed as semi formal, and we weren't exactly sure what that meant. I hazarded a guess, from my little bit of knowledge on dances from Phoenix, well the few that my friends had managed to drag me and my twin to anyways. Both Jessica and Angela seemed surprised at my reluctance for the activity of dancing in a gym with several hundreds of sweaty teenagers. 

"Didn't you ever go with a boyfriend or something?" Jessica asked dubiously as we walked through the front doors of the store and headed straight to the fancy dresses.

“I haven’t ever really had a serious boyfriend...” I spoke while flipping through some of the dresses on the rack. “I didn’t really have any time to date, besides nobody really found me appealing anyways even if I did.” I chuckled thinking about the few dates I had gone on in Phoenix with the few boys who mustered up the courage to ask. 

“Why not?” Jessica demanded. 

“I was too much of a soccer head, my friends and I were almost always practicing or working out.” I pulled a dress off the rack and held it out toward Angela, tilting my head to the side as if to try and imagine it on her. “Most of the guys either saw us as one of the boys or were too intimidated by me that they never bothered to ask. And I wasn’t particularly interested in dating either so I was never really bothered by it.” 

“And if they did ask you?” She asked me skeptically and I laughed again. 

“I rarely had time, so I would usually turn them down unless I was interested. In which case they usually fled after the first date or so because I was too busy, or too much of a ‘muscle head’” I lifted my hands up to put the air quotes around the muscle head. I had never considered myself as such, though I did spend a lot of my time getting into shape for soccer. Most guys didn’t like the idea that I wasn’t as cute and fluffy as my appearance might suggest. Like my sister was, or at least appeared to be for civility sake. Of course, she was out and proud in Phoenix so boys didn’t even try to advance on her romantically unless they were really stupid.

“And what about now?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I’m still spending a lot of my freetime on soccer for the end of this season, and no one I’ve been remotely interested in has bothered to ask me out so…” I trailed off and then I shrugged my shoulders while plucking through the dresses some more. 

“Well, except for Tyler,” Angela amended quietly and I whirled around to her when what she said finally registered. 

“Wh-what do you mean?” I spluttered out trying to make sense of her statement. 

"Tyler told everyone he's taking you to prom," Jessica informed me with suspicious eyes.

"He said what?" I sounded like I was choking. When had I ever agreed to go to prom with him? That little bitch. 

"I told you it wasn't true," Angela murmured to Jessica.

I was silent, still lost in shock that was quickly turning to irritation. I felt a strong need to strangle the stupid boy who was claiming to have staked me out for prom. So I decided to turn back toward the rack and release my frustration onto the dress hunt. For now anyways.

"That's why Lauren doesn't like you," Jessica giggled while we pawed through the clothes. I ground my teeth. 

"Do you think that if I ran him over with my truck he would stop?"

"Maybe," Jessica snickered. Probably not believing me capable of running someone over. Oh but how wrong she was. 

The dress selection wasn't particularly large, but both of them found a few things to try on. I sat on a low chair just inside the dressing room, by the three-way mirror, trying to control my fuming.

Jessica was torn between two — one a long, strapless, basic black number, the other a knee-length electric blue with spaghetti straps. I encouraged her to go with the blue; why not play up the eyes? Angela chose a pale pink dress that draped around her tall frame nicely and brought out honey tints in her light brown hair. I complimented them both generously and helped by returning the rejects to their racks. The whole process was much shorter and easier than similar trips Bella and I'd taken with Renée at home. I guess there was something to be said for limited choices.

We headed over to shoes and accessories. While they tried things on I also took the chance to look through their shoe selection. They had a few decent pairs of boots, though Bella and I already owned an abundance of combat boots. So I ended up merely watching the other two and critiquing. The girls'-night high was wearing off in the wake of my annoyance at Tyler, leaving room for the gloom to move back in.

“I like those,” I told Angela as she was trying on a pair of pink strappy heels — she was overjoyed to have a date tall enough that she could wear high heels at all.

Jessica had drifted to the jewelry counter and we were alone. 

"I think I'll get them — though they'll never match anything but the one dress," she mused.

“You can always pair them as an accent colour with something else if you want more use. Though they are on sale,” I pointed out to her and she just smiled at me before she laid them back in their box and put the lid on it. 

I kind of felt the urge to go walk off my ever present irritation, worried that I might lash out at my two friends because of it. Bella was a grand majority of my impulse control, and emotional control. It was a weird experience being away from her watchful eye whenever we went and did separate things. 

That might also explain why none of my dates went well in Phoenix. I had to stifle a laugh at my thoughts before Angela or Jessica realised my mind had wandered off, as Jessica returned to show us the rhinestone jewelry she'd found to match her silver shoes.

Jessica and Angela wanted to go walk down to the bay after the short dress excursion, before we went to dinner at a little Italian restaurant on the boardwalk. I decided that it was as good a chance as any to split off for a bit and collect my head before the dinner. I told them as we were taking their things to the car that I had somewhere I wanted to look into and that I would meet them at the restaurant in about an hour for dinner. 

They both offered to come with me, probably worrying that I would get lost in Port Angeles on my own, but I encouraged the two of them to go have fun. I had my phone on me anyways so I would let them know what was up, and google maps was always a helpful tool if I got myself lost. 

I went the opposite direction of them, heading further away from the lights of the boardwalk, and further into the eclectic shops of the townsfolk. I came up to a little book shop, if you could call it that. It had its windows full of crystals, dream-catchers, and books about spiritual healing.

I was vaguely curious and went in for a few minutes, though they didn’t really have a wide selection of anything. I ended up getting a book on the lunar calendar that I thought Bella would find interesting, but I didn’t really spend a lot of time in there otherwise. 

I then continued to meander my way through the streets, which were filled up with the end of the workday traffic and shoppers. I realised belatedly that I was walking further into unknown territory and decided to pull off to the side and look at my phone for directions. Clutching my little paper bookstore shopping bag and my purse close to my person I settled myself just around the corner of an alleyway to get myself situated on google maps. 

But when the little wheel of death continued to spin, I sighed. The gods were not favouring me right now apparently. Maybe they never had, they’d shoved me into this life predicament with a masochistic vampire stalker soulmate, for probable shits and gigs. 

I huffed and stomped along in a southerly direction, sort of back the way I thought I had come, toward some glass-fronted shops that looked promising. But when I got to them, they were just a repair shop and a vacant space. I still had too much time to go looking for Jessica and Angela yet, and I definitely needed to get my mood in hand before I met back up with them. I ran my fingers through my hair a couple of times and took some deep breaths before I continued around the corner.

When I started to realise that I was really getting myself lost, google finally started working. And I wanted to bash my head against the closest brick wall. 

I was dozens of blocks away from the restaurant I wanted to be at. I sighed and began heading in the right direction. As I opened my texting app, sending Jessica and Angela a quick message telling them I had gotten a little turned around and that I’d be a little late, but they could start dinner without me. 

Suddenly I bumped shoulders with a man who I had been trying to pass. I stumbled a little bit away from him before looking up. I noticed that there was a group of three others shortly behind him, all looming over me and dressed in old fashioned low hanging jeans and ratty old sweaters. Not exactly a popular office look. 

Their eyes were what did it for me, and their loud rambunctious voices. They all seemed to be leering at me, and they were joking at unnecessarily loud volumes amongst each other. 

“Hey there,” The man I had accidentally bumped into called out to me. I felt a slight shiver run down my spine as I almost automatically looked up at him. I hadn’t been catcalled like this in a long time. And I had never been alone when it had happened. I didn’t like the look in their eyes as they seemed to rake me up and down. They appeared to be slowing down as they passed me. 

The man I had bumped into, the closest one, was a heavyset, dark-haired man who looked to be in his early twenties. He was wearing an overly large flannel shirt over a dirty and ripped grey coloured t-shirt, his rough cut off jeans were hanging dangerously low on his hips and his sandals looked like they had seen better days. He took half a step towards me, and I held back a threat, taking my own step away from them. 

“Hey there,” The man repeated, “don’t you know I’m talking to you?” 

“Hello,” I muttered lowly, nodding my head then looking down at my phone, trying to stalk off. I hoped that this is where the encounter ended. I didn’t want to get involved with this right now. 

I briefly wondered if I should tell Jessica and Angela what was happening, but I brushed the idea off. They’d probably insist on coming to find me and I didn’t need to get those two sucked into my incredibly bad luck. I thanked my lucky stars that Bella had decided to stay home. I didn’t want her to experience this too. 

“Hey wait!” Another one of the men called after me again, but I continued to speed walk away from them, trying to stick to the path that google mapped out for me. I could hear the voluminous laughter rising from behind me. 

I turned a random corner, hoping to lose my trailers. If I could break their eye contact on me I might have been able to avoid them. 

I found myself on a sidewalk leading past the backs of several somber-colored warehouses, each with large bay doors for unloading trucks, padlocked for the night. The south side of the street had no sidewalk, only a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire protecting some kind of engine parts storage yard. I'd wandered far past the part of Port Angeles that I, as a guest, was intended to see. It was getting dark, I realized, the clouds finally returning, piling up on the western horizon, creating an early sunset. The eastern sky was still clear, but graying, shot through with streaks of pink and orange. I'd left my jacket in the car, and a sudden shiver made me cross my arms tightly across my chest. A single van passed me, and then the road was empty.

The sky suddenly darkened further, and, as I looked over my shoulder to glare at the offending clouds, I realized with a shock that two men were walking quietly only twenty feet behind me.

They were from the same group I'd passed at the corner, though neither was the dark one who'd spoken to me. I turned my head forward at once, quickening my pace. A chill that had nothing to do with the weather made me shiver again. My purse and shopping bags were clenched tightly in my grasp. I vaguely wondered if I could use my bag as a weapon. I didn’t look rich enough to rob and a small, frightened voice in the back of my mind warned me that they might be something worse than thieves.

I listened intently to their quiet footsteps, which were much too quiet when compared to the boisterous noise they'd been making earlier, and it didn't sound like they were speeding up, or getting any closer to me. Breathe, I had to remind myself. You don't know they're following you.

Of course, you could almost guarantee that they are. With my luck I’d be one step away from being dead before my miraculous vampire saviour would step in. 

Christ, I need to just stay with the group next time. 

I continued to walk as quickly as I could without actually running, focusing on the right-hand turn that was only a few yards away from me now. I could hear them, staying as far back as they'd been before. A blue car turned onto the street from the south and drove quickly past me. I thought of jumping out in front of it for help, but I hesitated, one second too long, and then it was too late.

I reached the corner, but a swift glance revealed that it was only a blind drive to the back of another building. I was half-turned in anticipation; I had to hurriedly correct and dash across the narrow drive, back to the sidewalk. The street ended at the next corner, where there was a stop sign. I concentrated on the faint footsteps behind me, deciding whether or not to run. I was a soccer player and good at running, but I wasn’t a particularly good sprinter and I didn’t know if I could get away from them. 

I could just try it and see? Maybe once I got to the corner. 

The footfalls were definitely farther back though. I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, and they were maybe forty feet back now, I saw with relief. But they

were both staring straight at me.

Well that definitely took away the thought of them not following me. They seemed to be starring me down as I rushed up the street towards the corner. I started to pick up the pace a little more, beginning to jog. Hoping to get around the corner and then dash towards a more populated area at least. 

Then promise to whatever higher power would listen to me to never wander off on my own in an unknown city, ever again. 

It seemed to take forever for me to get to the corner. I saw two cars going north past the intersection I was heading for, and I exhaled in relief. There would be more people around once I got off this deserted street. I skipped around the corner with a grateful sigh.

And skidded to a stop.

The street was lined on both sides by blank, doorless, windowless walls. I could see in the distance, two intersections down, streetlamps, cars, and more pedestrians, but they were all too far away. Because lounging against the western building, midway down the street, were the other two men from the group, both watching with excited smiles as I froze dead on the sidewalk. I realized then that I wasn't being followed.

I was being herded.

Like a fucking dumbass. I should have never turned the corner first, I should have just kept walking when I ran into them. 

I paused for only a second, but it felt like a very long time. Praying to every single god I could think of, hoping one of them would send help my way. Where the fuck was the stalking vampire when I needed him the most? 

I turned then and darted to the other side of the road. I had a sinking feeling that it was a wasted attempt. The footsteps behind me were louder now.

"There you are!" The booming voice of the stocky, dark-haired man shattered the intense quiet and made me jump. My heartbeat thudded loudly in my chest. I would have sworn that they could hear it from their distance. Even in the gathering darkness, it seemed like he was looking past me.

"Yeah," a voice called loudly from behind me, making me jump again as I tried to hurry down the street while not getting too close to either pair of men. "We just took a little detour."

My steps had to slow now. I was closing the distance between myself and the lounging pair too quickly. Could I run past them and escape before they caught me? I couldn’t guarantee the speed of these guys. Would I be able to evade them if I tried? 

I tightened my grip on my bags, wondering if I could get a few good whacks in if they came after me. I sucked in air, ready to dash at a moment's notice. 

The thickset man shrugged away from the wall as I warily came to a stop, and walked slowly into the street.

"Stay away from me," I warned in a voice that was supposed to sound strong and fearless. But it had very little volume to it. I could feel my hands shaking from fright as I clutched onto my bags. 

"Don't be like that, sugar," he called, and I decided fuck it. 

I dashed out, towards the signs of life. I heard jeers and calls from behind me but I wasn’t going to look back. I could feel my heart pumping wildly and I could hear the slapping of my shoes and those of my pursuers along the pavement. 

“Get back here sweetheart, we just wanna talk!” I heard a jeer from behind me, too close behind me. And I felt hands wrap around my upper arms. 

I shrieked wordlessly as the hands whipped me around to face him. I lashed out with my bags, and I heard a little oomf as they made contact with something. Though the grip on my arms only strengthened, hurting me. 

“Let me go!” I struggled wildly against the grip. 

“Oh we’ve got a feisty one boys.” The man holding me jeered again and I heard more laughing. 

In my panic I tried to remember any of the defenses I had learned back in Phoenix. Our mother had made Bella and I take a few classes and I wondered if I could use anything to trip them up at least so that I could get away. I tried to swallow so I could build up a decent scream.

Headlights suddenly flew around the corner, the car almost hitting the stocky one, forcing him to jump back toward the sidewalk. The surprise startled the one holding me long enough that I could escape and dive into the road —this car was going to stop, or have to hit me. But the silver car unexpectedly fishtailed around, skidding to a stop with the passenger door open just a few feet from me.

"Get in," a furious voice commanded.

It was amazing how instant the choking fear vanished, amazing how suddenly the feeling of security washed over me — even before I was off the street — as soon as I heard his voice. I couldn’t even think insults at my saviour of a vampire only feeling grateful at his timely arrival. I jumped into the seat, slamming the door shut behind me.

It was dark in the car, no light had come on with the opening of the door, and I could barely see his face in the soft glow from the dashboard. The tires squealed as he spun around to face north, accelerating too quickly, swerving toward the stunned men on the street. I caught a glimpse of them diving for the sidewalk as we straightened out and sped toward the harbor. I briefly wished that he had done something more to the four men before we left. Maybe went on a little neck snapping spree, or at least ran one or two of them over with his car. But he didn’t, unfortunately. 

"Put on your seat belt," he commanded, and I realized I was clutching the seat tightly with both hands.

I quickly obeyed; the snap as the belt connected was loud in the near silent darkness. He took a sharp left, racing forward, blowing through several stop signs without a pause.

But I felt utterly safe and, for the moment, totally unconcerned about where we were going. I stared at his face in profound relief, relief that went beyond my sudden deliverance. I studied his flawless features in the limited light, waiting for my breath to return to normal, until it occurred to me that his expression was murderously angry.

Well maybe you should have crushed those bozos then you idiot, I wanted to tell him. But I held my tongue knowing that in all likelihood he would listen to me. And for all my talk, I at least didn’t really want to be witness to that. Of course, after I was back with Angela and Jessica, I wouldn’t mind it so much if he hunted them down and repaid the favour. 

"Are you okay?" I decided to ask him instead, though I was surprised at how hoarse my voice sounded. It was probably worse to his much better hearing. 

"No," he said curtly, and his tone was sharp, livid. 

I was almost startled at his response. Usually he was very good at lying and pretending that everything was fine. Was he really that upset about it? 

I sat in silence, watching his face while his blazing eyes stared straight ahead, until the car came to a sudden stop. I glanced around, but it was too dark to see anything beside the vague outline of dark trees crowding the roadside. I suspected that we weren't in town anymore.

If I didn’t feel so safe in his presence, though I definitely shouldn’t considering he probably really wanted to drink my blood right about now, I would have been worried about the dark desertedness outside. But because I was an idiot, and I did feel remarkably safe in his presence, the dark and unfamiliar laneway didn’t phase me so much. 

"Kat?" he asked, his voice tight, controlled.

"Yes?" My voice was still rough. I tried to clear my throat, hoping to get rid of some of the graveliness of it. My scratchy voice probably wasn’t helping his temper at all.

"Are you all right?" He still didn't look at me, but the fury was plain on his face.

"Yes," I croaked softly. Gladly, so very relieved that I could respond like that. So very relieved that he had found me in time. I didn’t even want to think about what those four men would have done to me if not for him. I was extremely lucky right now. 

"Distract me, please," he ordered. Breaking me out of my small reverence parade of him in my head. I really needed to get my head on straight around this vampire. I was too much of a simp though. 

"I'm sorry, what?" his words finally registered in my brain. Did he really ask me to distract him? 

He exhaled sharply.

"Just prattle about something unimportant until I calm down," he clarified, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. I wanted to laugh. The temper this vampire had on him, Jesus. 

"Um." I wracked my brain for something trivial. "I'm going to run over Tyler Crowley tomorrow before school?" I finally settled on something violent. Maybe a little bit of visualising other violence would calm him down? I don’t know. 

He was still squeezing his eyes closed, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Why?"

"He's telling everyone that he's taking me to prom — either he's insane or he's an absolute idiot, and he thinks forcing me to go to prom is somehow the correct way to go about whatever the fuck this is. So, I figure if I endanger his life, then maybe he’ll stop with his weird brain malfunction. I don't need enemies and maybe Lauren would back off if he left me alone, meaning Bella wouldn’t have to lose one of her friends. I might have to total his Sentra, though. If he doesn't have a ride he can't take anyone to prom…" I babbled on. “Poor Lauren,” I mused quietly after a moment. 

"I heard about that." He sounded a bit more composed.

"You did?" I asked in disbelief, my previous irritation flaring. Fucking eh. I really wanted to end Tyler. "If he's paralyzed from the neck down, he can't go to the prom, either," I muttered, refining my plan. I could do forwards, backwards, forwards on him. Though that would be harder to play off as an accident...

Edward sighed, and finally opened his eyes.

"Better?" I asked, looking up at him. I noticed that his face still seemed a little pinched, though it had smoothed out a lot as he listened to my violent ranting. 

"Not really."

I waited, but he didn't speak again. He leaned his head back against the seat, staring at the ceiling of the car. His face was rigid.

"What's wrong?" My voice came out in a whisper. Could he really be that angry over what just happened? There’s no way, is there?

"Sometimes I have a problem with my temper, Kat.” He was whispering, too, and as he stared out the window, his eyes narrowed into slits. I clenched my teeth together to avoid laughing at that statement. "But it wouldn't be helpful for me to turn around and hunt down those…" He didn't finish his sentence, looking away, struggling for a moment to control his anger again. "At least," he continued, "that's what I'm trying to convince myself."

"Oh." The word seemed inadequate, but I couldn't think of a better response. I couldn’t really tell him that I actually wanted him to do that. Just turn around and find them and snap their little mortal necks. 

So we sat in silence again. I then felt a vibration coming from my bag. I gasped suddenly, whipping my phone out. I had innumerable calls and text messages from Angela and Jessica. Asking where I was, what was happening, if I was okay, if I was almost there, etc. There were also a few intermingled text messages from my twin sister, probably having felt the extreme fear from a few minutes ago. I wanted to groan as my head fell into my free hand. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Edward seemed genuinely worried that something had happened to me. I chuckled a little bit at his tone.

“Jessica and Angela are really worried,” I responded, while sending a quick - I’m okay now - off to Bella. “I was supposed to meet them,” I glanced at the time on my phone, “a while ago…” I trailed off. 

He started the engine without another word, turning around smoothly and speeding back toward town. I quickly sent Jessica and Angela each a text saying I was almost there and apologising for going MIA. 

We were under the streetlights in no time at all, still going too fast, weaving with ease through the cars slowly cruising the boardwalk. He parallel-parked against the curb in a space I would have thought much too small for the Volvo, but he slid in effortlessly in one try. I wanted to ask him how the fuck he managed that, considering I couldn’t remember his vampire powers being able to actually manipulate the size of objects, but I figured I would just get a scoff at this point if I said anything. 

I looked out the window to see the lights of La Bella Italia, and Jessica and Angela just leaving, pacing anxiously away from us.

"How did you know where… ?" I began, but then I just shook my head. Stupid question. He probably heard from Jessica or Angela’s head where we were meeting, if he couldn’t hear it from my own. And god knows he wouldn’t be this calm if he could in fact read my own mind. I heard the door open and turned to see him getting out.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm taking you to dinner." He smiled slightly, but his eyes were still sharp with the fading fury. He stepped out of the car and slammed the door. I fumbled with my seat belt, and then hurried to get out of the car as well.

He was waiting for me on the sidewalk.

He spoke before I could. "Go stop Jessica and Angela before I have to track them down, too. I don't think I could restrain myself if I ran into your other friends again." I wanted to laugh again, tone it down a notch buckeroo. You’re not playing human too well right now. 

"Jessica! Angela!" I yelled after them, waving when they turned. They rushed back to me, the pronounced relief on both their faces simultaneously changing to surprise as they saw who I was standing next to. They hesitated a few feet from us.

"Where have you been?" Jessica's voice was suspicious.

"I got lost, like I said in my earlier texts" I admitted. "And then I ran into Edward." I gestured toward him. Of course, it was more like he found me in dire straits, but you know. 

"Would it be all right if I joined you?" he asked in his silken, irresistible voice. I could see from their staggered expressions that he had never unleashed the full force of his talents on them before.

"Er… sure," Jessica breathed.

"Um, actually, Kat, we already ate while we were waiting — sorry," Angela confessed.

"That's fine —" I shrugged, but before I could say anything else I was interrupted.

"I think you should eat something." Edward's voice was low, but full of authority. He looked up at Jessica and spoke slightly louder. "Do you mind if I drive Kat home tonight? That way you won't have to wait while she eats."

"Uh, no problem, I guess…" She bit her lip, trying to figure out from my expression whether that was what I wanted. I nodded my head slightly in her direction. I wanted nothing more than to be alone with my perpetual savior. There were so many questions, and confessions, that I couldn't bombard him with till we were by ourselves. Of course, I would probably have to save many of them for later when we were truly alone on the trip home.

"Okay." Angela was quicker than Jessica. "See you tomorrow, Kat… Edward." She grabbed Jessica's hand and pulled her toward the car, which I could see a little ways away, parked across First Street . As they got in, Jessica turned and waved, her face eager with curiosity. I waved back, waiting for them to drive away before I turned to face him.

"Honestly, I'm not that hungry," I insisted, I didn’t bother explaining that my stomach was full of butterflies just being in his presence, looking up to scrutinize his face. His expression was unreadable.

"Humor me."

He walked to the door of the restaurant and held it open with an obstinate expression. Obviously, there would be no further discussion. I walked past him into the restaurant with a resigned sigh. Well whatever, if he was buying. No sense in passing up free food. 

The restaurant wasn't crowded — it was the off-season in Port Angeles. The host was female, and I understood the look in her eyes as she assessed Edward. She welcomed him a little more warmly than necessary and I was surprised by how much that bothered me. She was several inches taller than I was, and very pretty blond.

"A table for two?" His voice was alluring, whether he was aiming for that or not. I saw her eyes flicker to me and then away, satisfied by my obvious ordinariness, and by the cautious, no-contact space Edward kept between us. She led us to a table big enough for four in the center of the most crowded area of the dining floor.

Subtle, I wanted to snark out, but I decided to hold my tongue. Even if I only mumbled it, Edward would hear my snark. Whether that turned him off of me, or turned him onto the obvious flirty girl I would rather not know. 

So I resigned myself to be a good girl for the night. I was about to sit, but Edward shook his head at me.

"Perhaps something more private?" he insisted quietly to the host. I wasn't sure, but it looked like he smoothly handed her a tip. I could feel my eyes widening in surprise at the exchange. I'd never seen anyone refuse a table except in old movies.

"Sure." She sounded as surprised as I was. She turned and led us around a partition to a small ring of booths — all of them empty. "How's this?"

"Perfect." He flashed his gleaming smile, dazing her momentarily.

"Um" — she shook her head, blinking — "your server will be right out." She walked away unsteadily.

"You really shouldn't do that to people," I criticized, though I could feel the smile on my lips as I said so. "It's hardly fair."

"Do what?"

"Dazzle them like that — she's probably hyperventilating in the kitchen right now." I chuckled a little, hoping to not show my own jealousy that was currently rearing its ugly green head. 

He seemed confused.

"Oh, come on," I cried out, dubiously. "You have to know the effect you have on people." There’s no way the mind reading vampire was this fucking dense, was he? Jesus. 

He tilted his head to one side, and his eyes were curious. "I dazzle people?"

"You haven't noticed? Do you think everybody gets their way so easily?" Do you think every woman you meet is just naturally supposed to fawn over you like that? Could he not hear their thoughts as he was fawned over?

He ignored my questions. "Do I dazzle you ?"

I gave a little huff, but decided honesty was the best way to go here. If I wanted honesty from my own interrogation then I should also extend my own olive branch. "Frequently," I admitted.

And then our server arrived, her face expectant. The hostess had definitely dished behind the scenes, and this new girl didn't look disappointed. She flipped a strand of short black hair behind one ear and smiled with unnecessary warmth.

"Hello. My name is Amber, and I'll be your server tonight. What can I get you to drink?" I didn't miss that she was speaking only to him.

He looked at me.

“Do you serve pepsi or coke products?” I asked, wondering. Trying desperately to ignore the twinge in my stomach at the familiar feeling.

“Coke products,”

"I'll have a Coke then." The server seemed grateful when she could turn her face back to look at Edward again. 

"Two Cokes," he said.

"I'll be right back with that," she assured him with another unnecessary smile. But he didn't see it. He was watching me. I rolled my eyes and flipped open the menu in front of me. I briefly glanced over the options, but I could still feel his gaze on me. 

"What?" I asked, a little agitated that he was so fixed on me.

His eyes stayed on my face. "How are you feeling?"

I laughed a little at his question, confused by it mostly. "I'm fine," I replied, surprised by the intensity in his lightly coloured eyes.

"You don't feel dizzy, sick, cold… ?" I frowned a little, wondering what was with the interrogation. 

"Should I?"

He chuckled at my puzzled tone.

"Well, I'm actually waiting for you to go into shock." His face twisted up into that perfect crooked smile.

I laughed again, louder this time. I wasn’t so fragile, what did he take me for? "I don't think that will happen," I said after I could breathe again. "I’m not so weak as to go into shock over... that...” I waved my hand dismissively, “little thing.”

"Just the same, I'll feel better when you have some sugar and food in you." I wanted to shoot back at him that humans weren’t that fragile but I was interrupted. 

Right on cue, the waitress appeared with our drinks and a basket of breadsticks. She stood with her back to me as she placed them on the table.

"Are you ready to order?" she asked Edward.

"Kat?" he asked. She turned unwillingly toward me. I couldn’t stop the eyeroll at her reluctance. 

“I’ll have the linguini primavera,” I said, thankful that I had taken a brief look at the menu earlier. 

"And you?" She turned back to Edward with an unnaturally large smile, a small bat of her eyelashes.

"Nothing for me," he said. Of course not. He couldn’t even get an appetizer to pretend? Take out was a thing, I’d have taken it home with me gladly for Bella. Of course, he didn’t know yet that I knew and would be willing to help him actually look human. This was not it though. 

"Let me know if you change your mind." The coy smile was still in place, but he wasn't looking at her, and she left dissatisfied.

"Drink," he ordered. I rolled my eyes at him again. Man my eyes were going to get a great workout around this dazzling vampiric idiot if I kept this up. 

“Drink…” I muttered under my breath and I could see him chuckling a little at my snarky attitude. Glad I amused you there bud, but I picked up my drink anyways. 

I sipped at my soda, and then drank more deeply, surprised by how thirsty I was. I realized I had finished the whole thing when he pushed his glass toward me.

"Thanks," I muttered gratefully, still thirsty. The cold from the icy soda was radiating through my chest, and I shivered.

"Are you cold?"

"Don’t worry so much, it's just the Coke," I explained, shivering slightly again.

"Don't you have a jacket?" His voice was disapproving.

"Yes mother." I muttered snarkily and then looked at the empty bench next to me. "Oh — I left it in Jessica's car," I realized, I could feel a blush of embarrassment rush to my cheeks. I hadn’t really had a reason to snark at him now did I? 

Edward was shrugging out of his jacket. I suddenly realized that I had never once noticed what he was wearing — not just tonight, but ever. I just couldn't seem to look away from his face. I made myself look now, focusing. He was removing a light beige leather jacket; underneath he wore an ivory turtleneck sweater. It fit him snugly, emphasizing how muscular his chest was.

He handed me the jacket, interrupting my ogling. I could feel my blush renew anew, very probably going to be a permanent fixture on my face in his presence. 

"Thanks," I said again, laying his jacket over my shoulders kind of like a blanket. I didn’t want to get my food all over it and I just knew the sleeves were going to be too long for me. 

As I wrapped it around myself I noticed that it was cold — the way my jacket felt when I first picked it up in the morning, hanging in the drafty hallway. I shivered again a little, but I knew that it would heat up soon enough. It was at least something to cover me until I did. It smelled amazing though. I inhaled, trying to identify the delicious scent. It didn't smell like any cologne I knew, not that I had my eyes on cologne. Though most of the guys I hung out with in Phoenix had one or two that they liked to wear. 

"That color blue looks lovely with your skin," he said, watching me. I was surprised; I looked down, flushing, of course. I picked at the hem of my blue blouse trying to fan the flames of my blush before looking back into his perfect face. 

He pushed the bread basket toward me.

"Edward,” I sighed, “really, I'm not going into shock.”

"You should be — a normal person would be. You don't even look shaken." He seemed unsettled. He stared into my eyes, and I saw how light his eyes were, lighter than I'd ever seen them, golden butterscotch.

Then what he said registered.

“Edward, nothing happened to me other than a little bit of an adrenaline rush from being scared. I won’t go into shock just from being roughed up a little bit.” I muttered at him. He had to know by now that I wasn’t going to just go into shock. 

“Really Kat…” He started and I cut him off. 

"I also feel very safe with you," I confessed.

That seemed to displease him; his alabaster brow furrowed. He shook his head, frowning.

"This is more complicated than I'd planned," he murmured to himself. I wanted to laugh out loud at his statement. I couldn’t entirely quiet my guffaw though. 

Of course this was more complicated than he had planned. Not everything was a simple problem. Humans usually managed to mess a perfect plan up somehow. Besides, living with three pairs of perfectly matched vampire couples, how could he not understand the situation? 

Of course, I knew the future that Alice couldn’t see. The inbetween that was hidden, thanks to the books from my past life. 

I picked up a breadstick and began nibbling on the end, measuring his expression. I wondered when it would be okay to start questioning him. It was about time that he knew that Bella and I knew. Then we could stop beating around the bush all the time. It would be a lot more freeing than now at least. 

And I could get some answers that I needed. Now how to start...

"Usually you're in a better mood when your eyes are so light," I commented, trying to distract him from whatever thought had left him frowning and somber. I decided to start light, but hoped that he wouldn’t miss the slightly subtle hints that I was dropping. 

He stared at me, stunned. "What?" I smiled lightly, glad that he wasn’t as dense as I had originally suspected. 

"You're always crabbier when your eyes are black — I expect it then," I went on. "I have a theory about that." and I took a slightly exaggerated bite of the breadstick. It was a little too salty for my tastes, but it was a good distraction. 

His eyes narrowed. "More theories?" 

"Oh, don’t be such a sour puss." I chided him lightly as I chewed on a small bite of the bread, trying to look indifferent. He frowned at me then, but then a smile alighted his face. 

"I hope you were more creative this time… or are you still stealing from comic books?" His faint smile was mocking; his eyes were still tight though.

"Well, no, I didn't get it from a comic book, but I didn't come up with it on my own, either," I confessed. I was momentarily, desperately glad that Bella and I could use Jacob as an out. One day I might have to tell the vampires that we were in fact reincarnated. But for now, we had our cover. 

"And?" he prompted.

But then the waitress strode around the partition with my food. I realized we'd been unconsciously leaning toward each other across the table, because we both straightened up as she approached. She set the dish in front of me — it looked pretty good — and turned quickly to Edward.

"Did you change your mind?" she asked. "Isn't there anything I can get you?" I may have been imagining the double meaning in her words. But the way she batted her eyes at him I didn’t think so. I frowned a little, wondering why she was acting so shameless. 

"No, thank you, but some more soda would be nice." He gestured with a long white hand to the empty cups in front of me.

"Sure." She removed the empty glasses and walked away.

"You were saying?" he asked.

"I'll tell you about it in the car. If…" I paused.

"There are conditions?" He raised one eyebrow, his voice ominous.

"I do have a few questions, of course."

"Of course."

The waitress was back with two more Cokes. She sat them down without a word this time, and left again.

I took a sip.

"Well, go ahead," he pushed, his voice still hard.

I started with the most undemanding. Well the one most undemanding for me. I could easily give none of my cards away, but it was a very big one for him. But I wanted to see how tonight was going to go. "Why are you in Port Angeles ?"

He looked down, folding his large hands together slowly on the table. His eyes flickered up at me from under his lashes, the hint of a smirk on his face.

"Next."

"But that's…” I paused and sighed, “I can see that you’re going to be difficult huh?”

"Next," he repeated, affirming my suspicion.

I looked down, frustrated. I unrolled my silverware, picked up my fork, and carefully twirled it around, getting some of the linguini. I put it in my mouth slowly, still looking down, chewing while I thought. The tomatoes and mushrooms were good. I swallowed and I took another bite of my food before I took a sip of Coke. Then I decided that I had cooled my frustration enough to speak rationally. So I looked up.

"Okay, then." I glared at him a little, sizing him up. How far could I push it? How much of my hand should I play now? 

I wished Bella was here with me, she was always better at puzzles than I was. Edwards mask was one giant puzzle I wasn’t quite sure how to crack, at least not delicately. And I needed to be a little bit delicate. Too much, too fast, wasn’t a good idea for me either. 

“So…”

“So?” He questioned, seeming intent on pulling my words out of my mouth. So I smiled at him a little. Fine, let's play a little, shall we?

“Let's say, that… a certain someone could know what people are thinking, read minds, you know — with a few exceptions." I smirked in his direction. 

"Just one exception," he corrected, "well two ish."

"All right, with one and a half exceptions, then." I was thrilled that he was playing along. I couldn’t hide the smile that alighted my face when I realised that. Of course, my heart also pounded swiftly in my chest, worried about his correction. Was Bella not an exception? Did he know? He couldn’t know. 

"How does that work? What are the limitations? How would… that someone… find someone else at exactly the right time? How would he know she was in trouble?" I wondered if my convoluted questions even made sense. I wish I could remember how his power worked from the book. That would have made this line of questioning so much shorter and easier. Alas, Bella and I could not. “How could someone be half an exception?” I tacked on at the end, really hoping for that answer first to assuage my worries. Though I figured he wouldn’t give me the last answer that easily. 

"Well, if… that someone…"

I just stared at him, barely containing my excited bouncing that I was getting somewhere. I couldn’t tell you if I was more excited about learning about the things I had forgotten from the original story, or about him being willing enough to go along with my line of questioning. For now at least. 

He smiled wryly at my excitement. "If I had been paying attention, the timing wouldn't have needed to be quite so exact." He shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Only you could get into trouble in a town this small. You would have devastated their crime rate statistics for a decade, you know."

I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“I’m not that bad am I?” I asked, shaking my head. I didn’t think so, but my luck didn’t seem to be holding up well since the move to Forks.

He laughed at me, his eyes warm, if not a bit mocking.

"I don’t know? Aren’t you?” He chuckled a little. I just rolled my eyes, ignoring his teasing. 

"How did you know?" I asked, unable to curb my intensity. I realized I was leaning toward him again.

He seemed to be wavering, torn by some internal dilemma. His eyes locked with mine, and I guessed he was making the decision right then whether or not to simply tell me the truth.

"You can trust me, you know," I told him, trying to put a reassuring smile onto my face. I reached forward, without thinking, to touch his folded hands, but he slid them away minutely, and I pulled my hand back. 

"I don't know if I have a choice anymore." His voice was almost a whisper. I tried to keep the triumph off my face though. "I was wrong — you're much more observant than I gave you credit for."

"I thought you were always right." I joked at him lightly. I had won, just like when Jacob broke for Bella and I, I had bested the mind reading vampire. 

"I used to be." He shook his head again. Though with his weird track record of misunderstandings, I was beginning to think that he wasn’t always right, even with the mind reading thing, about the people around him. "I was wrong about you on one other thing, as well. You're not a magnet for accidents — that's not a broad enough classification. You are a magnet for trouble . If there is anything dangerous within a ten-mile radius, it will invariably find you."

“Oh man!” I laughed heartily at that. I couldn’t deny it either, I seemed to have abysmal luck lately. "And you put yourself into that category?" I stated, though I knew the answer to that one already.

His face turned cold, expressionless. "Unequivocally."

“You’re too hard on yourself,” I pointed out, with a bit of a wry smile. 

I stretched my hand across the table again — ignoring him when he pulled back slightly once more — to touch the back of his hand shyly with my fingertips. I needed to express my gratitude. His skin was cold and hard, like a stone.

"Thank you." My voice was serious as I said it. "That's twice now."

His face softened. "Let's not try for three, agreed?"

I smiled again, “I don’t know if I can help that.” I couldn’t really change my luck much now could I. The gods were probably looking down on me for entertainment anyways. Might as well play it up for them now that I had officially acquired my vampire guardian angel. He moved his hand out from under mine, placing both of his under the table. As if hiding them from me. I got the vague sense that he didn’t want me to touch him, though I couldn’t fathom why. I didn’t remember him having some sort of touch aversion. But he leaned toward me, so I let it go for now.

"I followed you to Port Angeles," he admitted, speaking in a rush. "I've never tried to keep a specific person alive before, and it's much more troublesome than I would have believed. But that's probably just because it's you. Ordinary people seem to make it through the day without so many catastrophes." He paused. 

He was probably wondering what my reaction would be to him following me around. Though I had had a hunch that he was. I know that he did it a lot in the later books, though I didn’t remember the exact time it started in the first one. If I was right, it was around the time that he started to speak to me again. Of course, I didn’t know just how far his stalking really went. He didn’t end up continuing though, just stared, maybe wondering why my lips were curving into an involuntary smile.

"Did you ever think that maybe my number was up the first time, with the van, and that you've been interfering with fate?" I speculated, though I knew that wasn’t the first time my life had been in danger in Forks. Oh no. Not that he knew yet, that I knew. 

"That wasn't the first time," he said, and his voice was hard to hear. I stared at him in amazement, but he was looking down. I never would have imagined that he would admit it outright. "Your number was up the first time I met you."

I could feel my eyes widen a fraction, my surprise at his sincerity fairly evident. Well, now… I didn’t really know what to say. Though he looked back up at my face before I could think of anything. 

"You remember?" he asked, his angel's face grave.

"Of course, how could I not?” a small and awkward laugh left my lips, but I squelched it before it got too far.

"And yet here you sit." There was a trace of disbelief in his voice; he raised one eyebrow. He looked at me a bit skeptically, as if I may have lost my mind to be laughing in this situation. Maybe I had. 

"Yes, here I sit… because of you." I paused. "Because somehow you knew how to find me today… ?" I prompted. I needed him to get back on task. Without clapping in his face and telling him to stop ADHD drifting on me. Or maybe I needed someone to do that to me first. 

He pressed his lips together, staring at me through narrowed eyes, deciding again. His eyes flashed down to my full plate, and then back to me.

"You eat, I'll talk," he bargained. I rolled my eyes but decided to comply. My food was tasty anyways. 

"It's harder than it should be — keeping track of you. Usually I can find someone very easily, once I've heard their mind before." He looked at me anxiously, as if worried he was going to startle me. But I just hummed through a mouth full of food, telling him to press on. 

"I was keeping tabs on Jessica, not carefully — like I said, only you could find trouble in Port Angeles — and at first I didn't notice when you took off on your own. Then, when I realized that you weren't with her anymore, I went looking for you. I saw you in the tellers head of a bookstore, and I knew the general direction to look. I knew you would have to turn around at some point and head back towards Jessica and Angela. So I was just waiting for you, randomly searching through the thoughts of people on the street — to see if anyone had noticed you so I would know where you were. I had no reason to be worried… but I was strangely anxious…" He was lost in thought, staring past me, seeing things I couldn't imagine.

"I started to drive in circles, still… listening. The sun was finally setting, and I was about to get out and follow you on foot. And then —" He stopped, clenching his teeth together in sudden fury. He made an effort to calm himself.

"Then what?" I whispered, hoping he would continue with the explanation. He continued to stare over my head.

"I heard what they were thinking," he growled, his upper lip curling slightly back over his teeth. "I saw your face in his mind." He suddenly leaned forward, one elbow appearing on the table, his hand covering his eyes. The movement was so swift it startled me. Almost instant. "It was very… hard — you can't imagine how hard — for me to simply take you away, and leave them… alive." His voice was muffled by his arm. "I could have let you go with Jessica and Angela, but I was afraid if you left me alone, I would go looking for them," he admitted in a whisper.

I sat quietly, not too sure what to say to him. He felt guilty over his murderous feelings, how would he feel if I told him that had been exactly what I wanted him to do when he saved me? To just run them over, just a little. I almost laughed at my violent thoughts, but I didn’t because I was worried he would think I was laughing at his confession. He would probably think I was insane if I did. 

I decided to just finish my food. There wasn’t much left now. I took one last swig of coke too and sat back, resting against the seat. 

He still had his face in his hand, and he was as still as if he'd been carved from the stone his skin resembled.

Finally he looked up, his eyes seeking mine, full of his own questions.

"Are you ready to go home?" he asked.

"I'm ready to leave," I qualified, overly grateful that we had the over an hour-long ride home together. I wasn't ready to say goodbye to him. I still had so much more we needed to discuss.

The waitress appeared as if she'd been called. Or watching. God, I hoped that she hadn’t heard anything. Of course, Edward would have known if she had at least, right?

"How are we doing?" she asked Edward.

"We're ready for the check, thank you." His voice was quiet, rougher, still reflecting the strain of our conversation. It seemed to muddle her. He looked up, waiting.

"S-sure," she stuttered. "Here you go." She pulled a small leather folder from the front pocket of her black apron and handed it to him.

There was a bill in his hand already. He slipped it into the folder and handed it right back to her. I wanted to scoff at him. Nobody used cash anymore, except really old people. Of course, he could definitely be counted in that category. Ugh, I did not want to think about that. 

"No change." He smiled. Then he stood up, and I scrambled awkwardly to my feet. 

She smiled invitingly at him again. "You have a nice evening."

He didn't look away from me as he thanked her. I suppressed a smile, my irrational jealousy of her satisfied for now.

He walked close beside me to the door, still careful not to touch me. I wanted to laugh, I couldn’t understand his careful aversion to contact. I remembered briefly about what Jessica had said about her relationship with Mike, how they were almost to the first-kiss stage. I sighed. One day, one day we would get somewhere. 

And now I just sounded like an overly hormonal teenage girl. Of course, I had the excuse that I was one. In body at least. 

Edward seemed to hear me sigh, and he looked down curiously. I looked at the sidewalk, grateful that he didn't seem to be able to know what I was thinking. Thank god for one of OG Isabella’s powers. 

He opened the passenger door, holding it for me as I stepped in, shutting it softly behind me. I watched him walk around the front of the car, amazed, yet again, by how graceful he was. I probably should have been used to that by now — but I wasn't. I had a feeling Edward wasn't the kind of person anyone got used to. Whether you knew everything or not.

Once inside the car, he started the engine and turned the heater on high. It had gotten very cold, and I guessed the good weather was at an end. I was warm in his jacket, though, breathing in the scent of it when I thought he couldn't see. Like a complete weirdo.

Edward pulled out through the traffic, apparently without a glance, flipping around to head toward the freeway.

"Now," he said significantly, "it's your turn."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey the sister here, I just wanted to apologies for the inconsistencies in uploading. With the new semester just starting I cannot promise anything with the upload schedule. I try to make sure there is at least 2 or 3 chapters in the almost edited to ready to be posted faze before posting here but we are running up to the end of the edited chapters. With the more apparent changes to come the editing ad writing takes more thought and time. Sorry in advance but I do hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I enjoy it!
> 
> Sorry for all the notes! 
> 
> We appreciate all your support!


	10. Theory

“Oh really?” I chuckled at that, looking at him as he looked at me. I wanted to tell him to keep an eye on the road. But he probably had better reflexes than I did while blindfolded so I figured I could ignore his inattention to the road, for now. 

“Yes, really,” He said seriously, but I just shook my head. 

“You avoided a few of my earlier questions, and I have another one I need to know the answer to before we continue this any further.” He sighed heavily, though he seemed resigned at the idea that I wouldn’t let this go until he answered my questions. I was stubborn, that’s for sure. 

“Alright, shoot.”

“How’d you know which way I went after leaving that bookstore? And that I’d gone south?” He glanced away from me, I was sitting there with an expectant expression on my face. I knew the answer, or at least I was pretty sure that I did. I just needed his verification. 

I laughed a little at his reluctance. “Weren’t we past the evasions Edward?” 

I saw the corners of his mouth twitch at that. 

“Fine,” He sighed, “I followed your scent.” He didn’t look toward me as he said so, his gaze was deliberately concentrated on the road as we exited Port Angeles city limits. 

Which was probably good for me, because I couldn’t stop the thick grin that lit up my face. We were finally getting somewhere, so close, the endgame so near. I was only two steps from fist pumping like an idiot. Of course, being excited about discussing his vampirism itself might have been the thing that made me an idiot, not the actions I wanted to do in celebration. 

“And then the earlier ones you never answered,” I grinned at him still and he looked at me for a moment, a look of almost disapproval and annoyance colouring his expression. 

“Which ones are those?” He asked, a frown forming on his face. 

“Well, of course, how does it work? The mind reading thing. Can you read anybody’s mind, anywhere? How do you do it? What about the rest of your family? What did you mean by exception and a half earlier….?” I trailed off as his expression darkened a little. He seemed put out that I was asking so many questions. 

“That’s more than one,” he pointed out and I laughed.

“I never said there was only one, did I?” 

“I guess not,” He sighed again as I intertwined my fingers trying to hold them and my body still from vibrating with curiosity. 

“No, it’s just me. And I can't hear anyone, anywhere. I have to be fairly close. The more familiar someone's… 'voice' is, the farther away I can hear them. But still, no more than a few miles." He paused thoughtfully. "It's a little like being in a huge hall filled with people, everyone talking at once. It's just a hum — a buzzing of voices in the background. Until I focus on one voice, and then what they're thinking is clear.

"Most of the time I tune it all out — it can be very distracting. And then it's easier to seem normal" — he frowned as he said the word — "when I'm not accidentally answering someone's thoughts rather than their words." He glanced at me for a minute while I just looked on expectantly. 

“You’re the only one who is completely silent,” He finally sighed out, and I felt like I was on the edge of my seat. I needed to know this information. I needed to know for sure, though I could guess that he couldn’t read Bella entirely or else he would have known the first day that we knew what him and his family were. That would have been awkward. 

“Your sister is mostly silent though,” He looked forward again, a frown puckering his eyebrows together. “I didn’t notice at first, I just thought that she was like you. You twins are more alike than you seem to be aware, of course. But I noticed when I concentrate on her very hard, I can feel the echo of whatever emotion she’s feeling. Not entirely silent, though just as aggravating considering I can’t understand why she’s feeling those emotions.” He looked back at me. 

“So Bella isn’t silent? But mostly?” I asked almost rhetorically and he just nodded. 

“Yes, and honestly, she might as well be silent. It’s very hard to concentrate on her with anyone else around.” 

“Why do you think you can’t hear me?” I asked him, curious about his theory.

He looked at me again, his eyes difficult to read. 

“I don’t know,” he murmured. "The only guess I have is that maybe your mind doesn't work the same way the rest of theirs do. Like your thoughts are on the AM frequency and I'm only getting FM." He grinned at me, suddenly amused.

I rolled my eyes, “Oh yes, calling me the weird one eh?” I asked with a chuckle. He seemed amused by this, smiling himself. “But I don’t know how well that theory holds up in the face of Bella’s almost silence. Since you can hear her a bit right?” He simply nodded his head. 

“It’s just a theory, one of many possibilities,” his face seemed to tighten a bit at what he was saying and I was confused for a moment. “Which brings us back to you,” he points out. Hmm how do I go about this. I pursed my lips in thought. 

“Aren’t we past all the evasions now?” He reminded me softly and I couldn’t help but laugh. 

“Oh we are, I’m just not sure how to go about this.” I admitted readily and he seemed to think about it for a moment. 

“I won’t laugh,” he tried, and I laughed at that statement myself. Nope, he would not laugh. Well he might if he heard about what I was thinking about it. Or the fact that I knew the whole time since we moved and yet still had the gall to hang around him. Or he’d really think that I was suicidal or psychotic. 

“I’m not worried about that, though you might not like it too much,” I sighed then. 

“Is it that bad?”

“Oh, not bad persee…” I trailed off. “How do I start?” I muttered to myself and he chuckled at me, though the sound seemed almost forced. 

“Well, you said you didn’t come up with this on your own, so why don’t you start there?” 

“Alright. Well…” I paused. How do people do this in those fantasy movies? How do you go about telling someone you think they’re a vampire, when the vampire in question is an overthinking worrywart. 

“What got you started - a book? A movie?” He probed, probably getting pretty impatient with my stalling. He probably thought I was reluctant to tell him and not that I had no idea how to best rip off the bandaid. 

“No - it was Saturday, at the beach,” I decided it was best to start there. Luckily his line of questioning lent itself to my revelation. I glanced up at him when I saw from the corner of my eye his confused face. 

“Bella and I ran into an old family friend - Jacob Black,” I continued, smiling a little at the memory. If he could not crush on the Swan twins then that would make his friendship points through the roof if I was being honest. “His dad and Charlie have been friends since before we were all born.” He still seemed confused. 

“Billy is one of the Quileute elders.” I watched him carefully as I revealed this, wondering where specifically his mind went as his frame stiffened, his hands seemed to be clenching dangerously on the steering wheel. His eyes were hard, though he didn’t look at me. 

“We went for a walk -” I edited out Bella’s and my almost diabolical scheme to get him to confess, since that would lead us to another topic I definitely didn’t want to talk about tonight. “He was telling Bella and I some of their old legends - trying to scare the two of us,” I laughed at that, remembering Bella’s acute disappointment at the lack of actual scary. “He told us one about vampires,” I couldn’t face him, though I could see his hands tighten even more on the steering wheel. The poor car. 

“And you immediately thought of me?” His voice seemed a little too calm for this conversation, though I figured his brain was working overtime. Oh, Edward. You had no chance the moment Bella and I were born into this world. 

“Oh no, he mentioned your family.” 

He stayed silent, and almost statuesque, staring at the road ahead of himself. 

I sighed, I should probably explain. 

“Okay, he thought it was all a silly superstition anyways,” I told him, “He didn’t expect me nor Bella to think anything of it. Besides, it was entirely our fault that he said anything in the first place. We kind of…” I paused when he looked at me skeptically, though the lines of his face were still hard, “forced it out of him?” The end of my confession came out more like a question. I snorted a bit at myself. 

“Why?” 

I was so glad I had accounted for this question. I almost wanted to bless Lauren for her little show. She had helped us then and she would help me perfectly now too. I didn’t have to play my cards all at once. Not yet. Not for this. 

“Lauren said something about you, she was trying to provoke me. And an older boy from the tribe said that your family didn’t come to the reservation, only his tone really hinted that he meant something else entirely. So Bella and I separated Jacob from the others and tricked it out of him.” I smiled, trying and praying that it looked as sheepish as I was going for. 

He suddenly started laughing, I was startled by the outburst and I looked up at him confused. His eyes were still hard, fierce even, and he was still looking ahead, even as he laughed at me. 

“Tricked him how?” 

It was my turn to laugh now. 

“Oh, Bella and I have our ways. We’re fairly devious when left to our own devices. And confusing anyone into admitting what you want them to is fairly easy if you have an accomplice that works on the same wavelength as you.” I didn’t give him any specific details, though I was almost certain he’d see us in action on his own at one point or another anyways. It was more, give him enough information that he didn’t continue this line of questioning than actual evasion. 

He chuckled a little at my admission, “You and Bella together seem to be a bit of a terror duo, huh? Poor Jacob Black.” 

“Oh, the terror is mostly me.” I admit readily grinning from ear to ear. “Well, I guess, between the two of us Bella is more the brains, I’m more the brawn.” I backtracked a little when I saw him glancing at me with a skeptical expression. “I can be the brains if I’m calm. But see I’m too quick to anger and much too stubborn to really get us anywhere if I’m emotionally charged. Bella is a lot calmer than I am, so she’s usually the one reigning me in.” We sat in silence for a moment as he digested my words. 

“What did you do then?” He finally asked me after a few minutes of silence. It took me a moment to realise what he was talking about, before I realised where his brain was again. 

“Hmm, Bella and I discussed it a bit,” I paused again, wondering how to continue. We were at a part where I could so easily slip up and tell him that Bella and I had known. That we were just using Jacob to get an out. I didn’t want to do that yet, maybe never. 

“And then?” 

“Well…” I sighed, “We kind of decided it didn’t matter?” I heard the inflexion in my voice and wanted to cringe. Though it didn’t seem to matter to him too much. 

“It didn’t matter?” His tone was dark, his face was incredulous as I looked up at him. There was evidence of anger in his hardened eyes. 

“No, it doesn’t matter…” He didn’t let me finish my thought. 

“You two don’t care if I’m a monster? If I’m not even human!” 

“No, Edward…” But his dark chuckle cut me off again and I huffed indignantly.

“Edward, for fucks sake, listen to me.” I snapped angrily. He seemed surprised at my outburst, but he didn’t face me, not entirely at least. 

“You’ve saved me a number of times already, whether or not you’re a vampire,” the word felt so weird rolling off my tongue. It was like a dark fantasy novel coming to life in front of my very eyes. Almost like a dream. “That has an impact, you know? So no, it doesn’t matter to me nor Bella.” 

He scoffed. “It doesn’t matter,” He inflected back at me and I rolled my eyes. 

“And I thought I had a temper, Jesus,” I groaned. I tried my best to not physically facepalm in his presence. “Why are you so angry anyways?” I accused. 

“Your theory might not be so far off, your thinking is not logical at all. It’s crazy, insane even.” 

“Oh right, because me thinking that someone who seems to continuously save my fucking life isn’t a monster is insane right? Of course, your anger means I’ve hit the nail right on the head anyway.” I crossed my arms and leaned back in the seat looking out the window myself this time. I pursed my lips a little petulantly. 

“Does it matter?” he asked me and I couldn’t stop the laugh from bubbling over. 

“No, not at all, though I am curious…” I trailed off. 

“Ever the curious cat… What about?” His voice hinted at the resignation, his brain seeming to catch up with the idea that I didn’t care that he was a vampire. Although he thought me crazy for thinking that way. 

Get used to it buddy, the Swan twins only take prisoners, we don’t become them. 

“So, what about the sun? Does it have any affect on you at all?” I joked, briefly wondering how many vampire clichés I could get through before I started cackling. 

He laughed, “being burned in the sun is a myth, and our powers aren’t weaker because of it either.”

“What about sleeping in coffins?”

“Myth…” He hesitated a moment, a peculiar tone entered his voice. “I can’t sleep.” He admitted. 

“At all?”

“Never.” 

“Huh, that’s a lot of extra hours there then, eh?” I commented, though my voice was low as if to speak to myself. Of course, I knew that he could hear me perfectly clear. 

“You haven’t asked me the most important question yet.” His voice was suddenly hard again, and his eyes were cold as stone again. 

“And what would that be?” 

“You aren’t concerned about my diet?” he asked me sarcastically. 

“Hmm, apparently it’s not pasta.” I retorted with my own sarcasm. He didn’t seem to find my joke amusing. 

“Don’t you want to know if I drink blood?”

“Well of course you do…” I retorted heavily. “You’re a vampire for fucks sake, unless you’re somehow leaching off of human life force some other way I’d assume you consume blood in some capacity or another.” I rolled my eyes, and cut him off before he could speak. “Besides, Jacob said something about that.”

“What did Jacob say?” His tone was flat, a dangerous edge in it. Though he could just be annoyed at my outburst. 

“Well, he said that you didn’t hunt people, you only hunted animals. And that your family wasn’t supposed to be dangerous because of that.”

“He said we weren't dangerous?” His voice was deeply skeptical. 

“Well, of course not.” I laughed, “You’re all vampires. But he said you weren’t  _ supposed _ to be. But the Quileutes still didn’t want you on their lands, just in case.” 

He looked forward, but I couldn't tell if he was watching the road or not. "The Quileutes have a long memory," he whispered. Before I could say anything he continued on his verbal warpath. 

"Don't let that make you complacent, though," he warned me. "They're right to keep their distance from us. We are still dangerous."

“I’ve never really been one for complacence Edward,” I just smirked at him, though he wasn’t looking my way. Probably avoiding my eyes. And you know what, if it wasn’t for the fact that I already knew all of this before we even moved to Forks, then I really would have probably been scared and confused. 

But I grew up knowing this was going to happen. Knowing that I was a part of some weird supernatural romcom that I didn’t personally sign up for. God just thrusted it upon me and decided it was time to make popcorn and watch the show. So why not at least make it a good one?

"We try," he explained slowly. "We're usually very good at what we do. Sometimes we make mistakes. Me, for example, allowing myself to be alone with you."

“Ah,” I muttered, I felt my heart sink just a little. I wanted so bad to just tear it out and tell it not to do that. Don’t sink over this vampire, please. “Then why are you here?” I asked, though I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to even know the answer. 

I stared out the window, the both of us were silent, thinking about it. I watched as the dark trees flew by, almost too fast, as we drove by at an unnecessarily fast pace. I wondered idly whether or not he’d be able to protect me if he managed to wrap us around a tree. 

Finally, the silence was truly stifling, so I decided to ask something. I needed this silence to end, and Edward didn’t seem so inclined to be the one to end it himself. 

“So, tell me why you guys hunt animals instead of people…” I suggested. Though after saying that, I wondered if that would just set him off again. But instead, he answered me honestly, as quiet as it was. 

“I don’t want to be a monster.” Mmm, yes, the cliché don’t want to be a monster trope. I guess it is a rather popular one for vampire MCs. 

“But animals aren’t enough?” I was curious. He paused a moment, looking at me as if wondering how detailed he could go. I wanted to tell him so badly that he could just say whatever, he didn’t need to hesitate or worry about me. But I also understood, on some level, considering I wasn’t going to be honest with him about my own circumstances. 

“I can't be sure, of course, but I'd compare it to living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our little inside joke. It doesn't completely satiate the hunger — or rather thirst. But it keeps us strong enough to resist. Most of the time." His tone turned ominous. "Sometimes it's more difficult than others."

"Is it very difficult for you now?" I asked.

He sighed. "Yes."

"But you're not hungry now," I said confidently — stating, not asking.

"Why do you think that?"

"Your eyes. I told you I had a theory. People tend to be crabbier when they're hungry."

He chuckled. "You are observant, aren't you?"

I smiled at him, happy that the mood had lightened considerably. Even with the slightly dark topic we were discussing. 

“So, were you hunting with Emmett this weekend?” I asked when he’d stopped chuckling. 

“Yes." He paused for a second, again seeming to be deciding whether or not to say something. "I didn't want to leave, but it was necessary. It's a bit easier to be around you when I'm not thirsty."

"Why didn't you want to leave?"

"It makes me… anxious… to be away from you." His eyes were gentle but intense, and they seemed to be making my bones turn soft and my heart flutter. "I wasn't joking when I asked you to try not to fall in the ocean or get run over last Thursday. I was distracted all weekend, worrying about you. And after what happened tonight, I'm surprised that you did make it through a whole weekend unscathed." 

I laughed loudly at his statement. 

“You worry too much Edward,” I gasped through my laughter. I felt a little bad for Emmett who would have had to deal with this brooding monster all weekend. “I’m not as breakable as you seem to think I am. Well I’m definitely more breakable than you…” I gave him a sideways glance and he was pursing his lips at me. Probably wanting to argue my claim of not being breakable. 

I decided to cut him off before he could start arguing my breakability with me. 

“A few scraped knees isn’t going to end my life. I’m a soccer player, I’ve definitely had worse.” 

“And that possibility tormented me the entire time I was away. It was a very long three days. I really got on Emmett's nerves." He smiled ruefully at me.

“Poor Emmett, he didn’t deserve your worried ass on his hunting trip,” I joked smiling. “So you got back Sunday then?” I mused over his admission for a moment. “What were you doing with your days free from school then?” 

He blanched at my question, and wouldn’t meet my gaze. He probably wasn’t expecting the question either. Though I could probably guess what he had been doing. Especially with the way he seemed to want to avoid the topic. I just hoped he hadn’t seen anything too embarrassing in his quest to watch over me like a vampiric guardian angel. 

I would definitely have to have a discussion with him on the whole stalking thing. It was slightly creepy if not a little bit uncomfortable. 

Again I was glad he couldn’t read mine or Bella’s thoughts. And that was now a proven fact. Hurrah. 

"Tell me something," he asked after another minute, and I could hear him struggle to use a lighter tone. I could also tell that he was diverting from my previous question. I wanted to laugh and tell him too bad I wanted to know, but I figured I could let him off for now. 

"Yes?"

"What were you thinking tonight, just before I came around the corner? I couldn't understand your expression — you didn't look that scared, you looked like you were concentrating very hard on something."

"I’m not that fearless, I was terrified,” I started with a laugh, “I was trying to remember how to incapacitate an attacker — you know, self-defense. I was going to smash his nose into his brain." I thought of the dark-haired man with a surge of hate mixed with a little bit of fear.

"You were going to fight them?" This revelation obviously upset him. "Didn't you think about running?"

“I’d already tried that, that’s why he was holding onto me. I wasn’t fast enough.” I touched my upper arm, wondering if where I’d been grabbed would bruise. Probably, there was quite a bit of pain when he was holding me. Even now, with the acknowledgement, the area throbbed. 

“What about screaming for help?” 

“Well, I think I’d screamed once already. Besides the fact that the bystander effect would probably leave me helpless anyways.”

“What?” 

“Girls are unfortunately taught that shouting fire is their best bet at being helped in that sort of situation, otherwise people think someone else will step in and then it ends up that nobody does. And that’s even if there were people close enough to hear me scream, and that cared enough to even check it out.” 

“So you weren’t going to scream?”

“Fine, I was working up for one, if you’re really insistent on knowing,” I sighed out as I watched us passing the Forks sign, entering the boundaries of the city. 

He just shook his head at me. “You were right — I'm definitely fighting fate trying to keep you alive."

I smirked in response. “Of course you are, but you seem to be pretty dedicated to the role at least.” I glanced out the window as we started to pass by houses. 

“Will I see you tomorrow?” I wondered aloud. Would it be sunny again? 

“Yes, I also have a paper due.” He smiled at me. “I’ll save you a seat at lunch.” 

I knew it was silly, even stupid, after everything we’d been through tonight, how that little promise sent my insides into a mushy, fluttering mess. I was almost excited for tomorrow. 

He pulled up in front of Charlie’s house. The lights were on, waiting for my return. I breathed for a second, taking in a whiff of his scent like a complete dork, before I slid his jacket from around my shoulders and handed it back to him. 

“You can keep it, you don’t have a jacket for tomorrow,” he reminded me as he tried to push the jacket back into my grasp. 

“I’ll be fine, thanks. I don’t really want to explain it to Charlie either,” I smiled, pushing the jacket back to him.

My hand was on the door handle, but I paused for a minute. “I hope you know that I’ll be telling Bella about what we talked about tonight. She’s basically my second half, we have no secrets.” 

I heard the sigh coming from behind me, but there was no objection. Of course, I would be doing it whether or not he gave me permission. He probably knew that already and figured it was best to avoid the argument. 

“Kat?” He asked, his tone serious and hesitant. 

“Yes?” I turned back to face him and saw the fight on his face, as if he was arguing with himself about something. He seemed to decide against whatever it was, and he settled back into his seat. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeup, tomorrow.” I grinned at him, pushing the door open. I quickly closed it behind me and jogged my way up to the front door. The air was chilly without a jacket, and I could feel the goosebumps raising themselves on my arms. 

I looked back and gave a little wave as I opened the door. He pulled out of the driveway and sped down the street and I walked through the door. 

“Rina?” Charlie called, probably from the living room. 

“Hi dad!” I took my shoes off and locked the door before wandering into the house. As predicted, I saw Charlie in his recliner.

“Did you girls have fun?” He asked, looking up at me from his position. It felt like a millennium ago that I had been shopping with Jessica and Angela. 

“Yeah, they both managed to find dresses. And I managed to avoid growing mine and Bella’s shoe closet.” He chuckled at my joke but nodded his head. 

“Good, good. Glad you had fun.” 

“Bella upstairs?” I asked and he just nodded his head in response, focusing back on the TV. I took that as my cue to leave.

I hopped up the stairs and burst through my sisters room door. 

“Jesus,” Bella cried, her hand to her heart as if I had startled her. I tossed the paper bag with the book I’d purchased for her at her head and it landed with a thud on the pillow beside her before I followed its trajectory with my own body. 

“Oh hush.” I grabbed her arm as I sat on the bed beside her. 

“So, how was the night?” 

“It was okay, then terrifying, then informative,” Bella slapped my arm at my summary. I winced a little at the pain that throbbed from the area I was grabbed. Of course, Bella probably thought it was from the slap itself. Pfft, I wasn’t that weak. 

“I want details not a bare bones version you idiot!” 

“Hold up, I need to text Jessica to get her to bring my jacket tomorrow.” I held up my hand and dug into my purse for my phone. I quickly shot off a text. And only moments later I got a response from Jessica with an affirmative on the jacket, and a promise to squeeze the details about my ‘date’ with Edward Cullen out of me tomorrow. 

“Okay, how about you shower and we both get ready for bed, then you can tell me everything.” Bella said when I looked back up from my phone. 

“Okay, okay. I didn’t realise I stink!” I chortled and I was met with another slap. 

“Idiot, you’re shivering something fierce, probably because you were jacketless.” 

“You need to stop calling me an idiot. I’m forgetful, not an idiot.” I sprung up and away from the potential repercussions of my statement. But she just rolled her eyes and shooed me to the bathroom. 

I didn’t realise how cold I actually was until the hot water started hitting my skin. It felt like Satan’s flames were taking a good chunk of my flesh before I warmed up enough to stop the shivering I hadn’t noticed. 

I glanced down at my now exposed arms. As I thought, there were giant handprint bruises forming on both of my upper arms. A reminder of the part of the evening that I wasn’t sure I wanted to remember. 

No, I definitely didn’t want this reminder. 

I quickly got through my shower, trying my best to not look at the bruises. I wrapped a towel around me and walked into my room, Bella already sitting on my bed in her pyjamas. Her eyes zeroing in on the bruises on my arms. 

“Oh my god, what happened?” She rushed at me, grabbing my left arm and examining the hand print that was already starting to purple. 

“Well, the whole attempted rape thing was… a little more intense than I expected.” I told her, hoping my voice didn’t carry downstairs to Charlie. I closed my door tightly, just in case. 

“What does that mean?” Bella gasped out as I dressed in a long sleeved shirt and a pair of pyjama shorts for bed. I toweled through my hair a few times, before deciding to just let it air dry through the night. I would probably regret that decision tomorrow morning when I had to brush through the curls, but that was tomorrow me’s problem. 

“Kat…”

“Calm down, lay down and I’ll tell you.” I told her, flipping my covers down, turning off the lights, and rolling into the right side of my bed. Bella climbed in beside me. We were facing each other in the dark. 

“You have to tell me everything, leave nothing out.”

“Alright so…” I started, realising that this would be a very long night. 


End file.
